VI PREFACE. 



by Dr. Johnston has hitherto been the English naturalist's only 

 guide to the study of these creatures ; and notwithstanding the 

 value of this work in many points, the almost utter worthless- 

 ness of their specific characters has been often confessed. That 

 excellent zoologist lived on a coast where the Anemones are feebly 

 represented ; and hence his personal acquaintance with species was 

 very small, or the result would doubtless have been different. 



The elaborate " Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires " of M. 

 Milne-Edwards is liable to the same objection. A work of 

 immense research, labour, and patience, it bears evidence in every 

 page of being the produce of the museum and the closet, not of 

 the aquarium and the shore. With those species which possess 

 no stony skeleton, the learned author evidently had no acquaint- 

 ance, — or next to none ; — and hence he has merely reproduced 

 the words of his authorities in all their vagueness ; while the 

 distribution of the species into genera and families appears so 

 full of manifest error to one personally familiar with the animals 

 in a living state, that I have not attempted to follow his 

 arrangement. 



I have been compelled, therefore, to draw up the characters of 

 my subjects de novo ; and in doing so I have resorted to nature 

 itself; I have studied the living animals. For the last eight 

 years I have searched the most prolific parts of the British shores, 

 — the coast of Dorset, South and North Devon, and South 

 Wales ; and have moreover, as the following pages show, had 

 poured into my aquaria the productions of almost every other 

 part of our coasts, — from the Channel Isles to the Shetlands. 

 For these last I am indebted to the kindness of many zealous 

 scientific friends, whose names appear in this volume, and to 

 whom I here express my grateful obligation ; especially distin- 

 guishing Mr. F. H. West of Leeds, and the Kev. W. Gregor 

 of Macduff, as pre-eminent in their contributions. 



The result is that seventy-five species 'find their places in 

 these pages, five of which are merely indicated, leaving seventy 

 good species, exclusive of the Lucemzariadce. Of these twenty- 



