INTRODUCTION 



Though the following " History of the British Sea- 

 anemones and Corals" is intended for general readers, it 

 seems desirable that it should be accompanied by a brief 

 rSsumi of what is known concerning the anatomy and 

 physiology of this order of animals. I have commenced the 

 text of the work with a general description of the con- 

 stituent parts of their bodies, in order to establish a 

 determinate orismology for the class, and shall here assume 

 that the reader is sufficiently familiar with the various 

 organs, and the terms by which they are indicated. 



The Sea-anemones present a low grade of animal 

 existence, and are commonly represented as exceedingly 

 simple in structure. The term " Animal-flowers," by 

 which they were known to the early observers, and which 

 has been perpetuated in the Greek equivalent " Anthozoa," 

 applied to the class by some modern naturalists, has been 

 thought to express the fact, that a vegetable type of 

 organization is scarcely less proper to them than an animal 

 one. It is, however, to the accidental resemblance which 

 these beautiful forms often bear to a highly-coloured and 

 many-petale,d flower, that the name owes its appropriate- 

 ness, rather than to any close assimilation to the vegetable 

 structure. The Sea-anemone is an indubitable animal, and 

 its organization is more complex than is usually supposed. 

 This will be seen as we proceed with the successive ex- 

 amination of the organs.* 



* In all cases in which I do not adduce any other authority, the following 

 statements may be considered as given on the authority of my own dissec- 

 tions and observations. 



