120 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



fages, Wagner, Kolliker, Leuckart, and others ; but the five 

 works just mentioned are, I believe, all the reliable original 

 sources of information on the structure and habits of the 

 Sea Anemones ; and they all contradict each other with 

 great freedom, so that the student need not be surprised if 

 he, in turn, is forced to oppose a flat denial to many a posi- 

 tive assertion. In the course of the present volume such 

 flat denials will be frequent. 



It must be assumed at starting that the reader knows 

 what a Sea Anemone is, in aspect at least. No description 

 will avail, in default of direct observation ; even pictures 

 only give an approximate idea ; while to those who have 

 seen neither picture nor animal it will be of little use to 

 declare that the " Actinia is a fleshy cylinder, attached by 

 one extremity to a rock, while the free end is surmounted 

 by numerous tentacula arranged in several rows, which, 

 when expanded, give the animal the appearance of a flower." 

 Assimiing, then, that you know the general aspect of the 

 Actinia, you may follow my description of the animal's 

 bearing and habits. 



How do I know that it is an animal, and not a flower, 

 which it so much resembles ? No one yet has been able to 

 distinguish, in the face of severe critical precision, between 

 the animal and plant-organisation, so as to be able authori- 

 tatively to say, "This is exclusively animal." To dis- 

 tinguish a cow from a cucumber requires, indeed, no pro- 

 found inauguration into biological mysteries ; we can 

 "venture fearlessly to assert " (with that utterly uncalled-for 

 temerity exliibited by bad writers in cases when no peril 



