220 THE MICROSCOPE. 



a soft hair pencil, or even with the finger, carefully avoiding to rub or 

 press hard on the anemonies. Should any of them drop off during this 

 operation, they may be left at liberty ; for they will soon of their own 

 accord fix themselves to some other place. Should any of them die, 

 which will soon be discovered by the milky colour of the water, and 

 an offensive smell on changing it, it must be taken out, and on the first 

 opportunity another of the same species be put in its place ; those of a 

 moderate size are the most eligible." 



Actinia bring forth their young alive ; one or more appear first 

 in the tentacles, from whence they can be withdrawn and transmitted 

 to others by the parent, and are at last produced by the mouth. In 

 the course of six years, one specimen was found to produce above 

 276 young. 



Like the Hydra?, the Actinia may be cut and its members lopped 

 off without injury, the parts becoming perfect animals, or the limbs 

 rebudding ; in fact, the tentacles will be reproduced as often as the 

 sympathising experimenter may choose to perform amputation. If the 

 animal be divided in two, separating the base from the head, the former 

 will become a perfect animal, and the latter industriously swallow food ; 

 which passes freely through it, but in time is retained, and a finished 

 stomach effects the necessary function of digestion. Upon trying this 

 experiment, there have been instances of a new head coming at the part 

 where the separation from the base was effected ; thus at each end the 

 active and powerful feelers captured prey and conveyed it to the stomach. 

 Hot water may blister its skin, and a transparent palace of ice encase 

 its body, or an air-pump deprive it of air, the animal will not die ; but 

 fresh-water is the swift and sure messenger of death. 



The commonest kind of this family, Actinia mesembryanthemum, or 

 Smooth Anemone., is of a dark-flesh or olive colour; some are streaked 

 with white, blue, or green, or spotted. The feelers, when stretched out, 

 are about the same length as the body ; the animal generally measures 

 about an inch and a half in diameter. Dr. Johnston says: " The tubercles 

 within the margin of the oral disk are formed by papillary projections 

 of the parenchyma spongy or porous flesh of the body, covered over 

 " on the top with a thick layer of dense blue matter ; in it, as well as in 

 the skin generally, minute fusiform calcareous spicula, some slenderer 

 than others, may be detected in abundance with the microscope." 



Actinia rubra and Bellis (Nos. 4, 5, 6, and 7, Plate I.) generally live 

 together in groups of four or five. Goertner thus describes them : "From 

 the small base arises a cylindric stalk, which- supports the roundish body 

 of the animal, and from whence afterwards the calyx, being a continued 



