150 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



ACTINIAE. 



" THE works of Nature far exceed what we know, or 

 are able to know of them. Convinced of this truth, 

 and in order to improve my customary walks by the 

 sea-side to some useful purpose, I bestowed par- 

 ticular attention, in the month of November 1771, 

 upon the Sea-Anemones. My first success in these 

 discoveries soon turned these amusements of mine 

 into a long study, much more laborious than that 

 made in a library." Thus writes the venerable Abbe 

 Dicquemare in the Philosophical Transactions for 1 773, 

 and doubtless there is many a naturalist of the present 

 day who will sympathetically appreciate the senti- 

 ments he expresses. 



Certainly among all the beauteous objects upon the 

 sea-beach that woo our admiration, as though in 

 emulation of each other's charms, none can bear com- 

 parison with the subject of the present chapter. 



" The living flower that, rooted to the rock, 



Late from the thinner element, 

 Shrunk down within its purple stem to sleep, 

 Now feels the water, and again 

 Awakening, blossoms out 

 All its green anther-necks." 



