140 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



Besides, if the monotony of the Anemone wearies you, 

 there is always tliis variety in reserve : you can eat it I 

 The Italians do ; they boil it in sea-water with great satis- 

 faction. Thus boiled, it has " a shivering texture, somewhat 

 like calf s-foot jelly ; the smell is somewhat like that of a 

 warm crab or lobster," and it is eaten with savoury sauce, 

 Mr Gosse describes his fiying them in butter, if I remember 

 rightly ; and although he felt a little diflBculty in swallowing 

 the first mouthful — probably remorse, and zoological tender- 

 ness, gave him what the Italians call a "knot in the throat" 

 — yet, having vanquished his scruples, he ate with some 

 relish. Lady Jane is " horrified " at the idea of eating her 

 pets; but now that horse-flesh is publicly sold in the 

 markets of Vienna and other German towns, and public 

 banquets of hippophagists are frequent in France, will 

 Anemones long escape the frying-pan ? 



It was hinted just now that the Anemone was but an in- 

 different parent. Having given birth to her offspring, she 

 spends no anxious hours over the episodes of infancy. When 

 I say She, I might as well say He, or It, for no distinction of 

 sex exists, as we shall see presently ; and probably it is to this 

 cause that the parental indifference may be traced ; how, in- 

 deed, can maternal tenderness and ceaseless vigilance be ex- 

 pected, when the maternal individual is as yet undeveloped ? 

 The Actinia) are viviparous. Indeed I suspect they are only 

 viviparous, and not at all oviparous. Rymer Jones seems to 

 hesitate on the point, adding, "but it is asserted by numerous 

 authorities that the young are not unfrequently born alive." 

 I not only assert this, but ask whether any one has ever sec n 



