THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 19 



There are probably thousands of specimens of this fine 

 Anemone now Irving in the aquariums of Great Britain and 

 Ireland ; and a large number of these have been several 

 years in captivity. They continue to live and flourish, 

 expanding and erecting themselves with the greatest free- 

 dom ; nor do they seem at all affected by the turbidity of 

 the water, provided it be free from impurity. I have had 

 some specimens of rather large size continue for many 

 months in water so loaded with green Alga spores as to be 

 almost opaque, yet during the whole period they appeared 

 perfectly at ease, and even increased their number by 

 fissiparous division. It is the frequent habit of the species 

 to crawl up the perpendicular side of the tank which it 

 inhabits, till it reaches the water's edge, a situation which 

 seems particularly grateful to it ; for there it remains from 

 week to week, daily (or rather nightly) projecting its 

 columnar form in a horizontal direction, at the very surface, 

 and then expanding its beautiful frills, so that the air 

 bathes a part both of its body and its tentacles. 



I have never seen this Anemone increase its kind by 

 proper generation, that is, by the discharge of ova, or of 

 young. But no species more freely increases by sponta- 

 neous division. When a large individual has been a good 

 while adherent to one spot, and at length chooses to change 

 its quarters, it doe3 so by causing its base to glide slowly 

 along the surface on which it rests ; — the glass side of the 

 tank, for instance. But it frequently happens that small 

 irregular fragments of the edge of the base are left behind, 

 as if their adhesion had been so strong, that the animal 

 found it easier to tear its own tissues apart than to over- 

 come it. The fragments so left soon contract, become 

 smooth, and spherical or oval in outline, and in the course 

 of a week or fortnight may be seen each furnished with a 

 margin of tentacles and a disk — transformed, in fact, into 



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