502 REPRODUCTION OF SEA-ANEMONE. 



to a pulp ; nevertheless they appeared in a few weeks from the 

 very same places." The Actiniae have not only the power of 

 repairing injuries of this description, but seem to resist the effects 

 of other agents in a very remarkable manner. They are not 

 killed by being frozen in a mass of ice, but return to activity 

 when thawed ; and they withstand the action of water heated to 

 140. They may be placed with impunity in the exhausted 

 receiver of an air-pump ; and yet their life is destroyed in a few 

 minutes by immersion in fresh water. 



1069. We do not find in the Actiniae anything exactly resem- 

 bling the reproduction by buds, which is so remarkable in the 

 Hydra. The spontaneous division of the body just alluded to, 

 which is said to take place occasionally, not into two parts only, 

 but into several constitutes an approach to it. The special 

 reproductive apparatus, by which distinct germs are formed, is 

 here very highly developed ; consisting, as already described, 

 of a series of chambers, surrounding the stomach, within 

 which they are developed. They sometimes pass out by the 

 tentacular orifices, in the state of simple gemmules furnished 

 with cilia, like those of other polypes. Sometimes, however, 

 they are retained for a longer period, and their development goes 

 on within the body of the parent, so that when liberated they 

 already present something of the form of the adult animal, 

 having a mouth, stomach x and tentacula, the latter being at 

 first few, but gradually increasing in number. In this state they 

 generally find their way out by the mouth of the parent ; and 

 Dicquemare says that he has had eight or ten born in his hand 

 at once. In the course of six years, an Actinia, kept by Sir 

 J. Dalyell, produced above 276 young. If all these had been 

 preserved, and their progeny reckoned, the amount would have 

 been enormous. The young are frequently disgorged along 

 with the half-digested food ; thirty-eight appearing thus, in 

 various states of development, at a single litter. Monstrosities 

 are not uncommon among the young. One is mentioned by 

 Sir J. D., which had two perfect bodies springing from a single 

 base. When one body was gorged with food, the other con- 

 tinued ravenous. The process of respiration already described, 



