122 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



are purely arbitrary, and as the philosophers say — sub- 

 jective. 



Now what are the characteristic marks of the Sea- 

 Anemone, which entitle it to be removed from the hands 

 of the botanist, and placed in those of the zoologist ? 

 Eymer Jones declares that its animal nature " is soon 

 rendered evident," this evidence being the manifestation of 

 sensibility. "A cloud veiling the sun will cause their 

 tentacles to fold as though apprehensive of danger from 

 the passing shadows." Unhappily, the fact alleged is a 

 pure fiction ; and, were it true, would not distinguish the 

 Actinia} from those plants which close their petals in the 

 dark. A fiction, however, it is, as any one may verify. If 

 Actiniie have been seen to fold up their tentacles when a 

 cloud has passed before the sun, this has been a coincidence, 

 not a causal relation ; so far from light being the necessary 

 condition of their expansion, they are in perfect expansion 

 in the darkness ; and if the venturous naturalist will, with 

 the solemn chimes of midnight as accompaniment, take his 

 lantern on the rocks, he wiU find all the Anemones in full 

 blossom, I said that Rapp might still be read with profit. 

 Hear him on this point. " Many Zoophytes, although 

 without eyes, possess the f)0wer of distinguishing light from 

 darkness. This has long been asserted of the Actiniae, 

 nevertheless, on some species, it appeared to me that neither 

 light nor darkness exercised any appreciable influence. 

 Actinia plumosa, which I often watched on the western coast 

 of Norway, expanded its tentacles equally in the dark, as 

 when I removed it suddenly from darkness into direct sun- 



