S6 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



not on the East Coast, has very abundant, long, pale 

 green tentacles, which are tipped with a brilliant peach 

 colour, and it is peculiar in not being able to retract or 

 conceal this beautiful crown of snake-like locks, remind- 

 ing one of the Gorgon Medusa. It is known as Anthea 

 cereus (Fig. 6, c). Many of them are known by the 

 name " Actinia," and the commonest of all (Fig. 6, d) 

 is called " Actinia mesembryanthemum," because of its 

 resemblance to a fleshy-leaved flower of that name 

 which grows on garden rockeries — sometimes called the 

 " ice-plant." This one is of a deep maroon colour, rarely 

 more than an inch and a half across the disk. The 

 adhesive disk is often edged with bright blue, and small 

 spherical tentacles, of a bright blue colour, are set at 

 intervals outside the fringe of longer red ones. This 

 anemone lives wonderfully well in a small glass basin 

 or in an aquarium holding a gallon of sea-water, which 

 is kept duly aerated by squirting it daily. One lived 

 in Edinburgh for more than fifty years, in the possession 

 first of Sir John Dalyell, and then of Mr. Peach. She was 

 known as " Granny," and produced many hundreds of 

 young in the course of years. This species is viviparous, 

 the young issuing from the parent's mouth as tiny fully- 

 formed sea-anemones, which immediately fix themselves 

 by their disks to the glass wall of their habitation. 

 Anemones kept thus in small aquaria have to be 

 carefully fed ; bits of the sea mussel (of course, un- 

 cooked) are the best food for them. This and many 

 other kinds are not absolutely stationary, but can very 

 slowly crawl by means of muscular movements of the 

 adhesive disk. There are kinds of sea-anemones known 

 which spend their lives floating in the ocean ; they are thin 

 and flat. Others adhere to the shells of hermit crabs and 

 even to the big claws of some crabs, and profit by the 

 " crumbs " of food let fall by the nippers of their host. 



