62 ITS POWERS OF CONTRACTION. 



many others, is extremely flat, being scarcely more 

 than a quarter of an inch in thickness ; indeed, so 

 extraordinary is the peculiarity to which I allude, 

 that a novice would have great difficulty in believing 

 that the object before him was possessed of expansive 

 powers at all, whereas, in point of fact, it is even 

 more highly gifted in this respect than any other 

 species of Actiniae. 



