2 3 o TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



thirty-five. The animals were therefore carefully 

 watched that night, but not until next day were we 

 gratified by witnessing, what has been shown by 

 numerous observers to occur, viz., the evolution of 

 the young, of all shapes and sizes, by the mouth. 

 On dissecting one of the adult anemones, it was 

 found, as we were thus led to anticipate, that a 

 considerable opening obtained to the base of the 

 stomach, admitting the tip of the little finger, and 

 freely communicating with the interseptal spaces 

 and general abdominal reservoir. This, to our mind 

 fully cleared up the difficulty, so often expressed, 

 concerning the passage by which the young polyps 

 gain access to the digestive cavity, and are ulti- 

 mately set free." l 



Thus far then we have detailed the structure and 

 development of the common anemones, which do not 

 secrete coral, in order to illustrate the coral-making 

 species. The differences between them consist in 

 the anemones being simple animals, that is, not 

 associated to form colonies, in their being generally 

 capable of locomotion on the muscular base, as well 

 as in the deficiency of the power of secreting coral. 

 In other respects, that which applies to the one 

 group applies also to the other. In consequence of their 



1 Dr. S. Cobbold on the " Anatomy of Actinia," in " Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History." Feb. 1853, p. 122. 



