ZOOPHYTES. 265 



copy, there are few objects in nature more calcu- 

 lated to attract our notice than are these living 

 flowers. There they grow 



" Rooted and slumb'ring through a dream of life," 



making a little isle of beauty of the rock where 

 they abound, waiting, with the dark, lank sea- 

 weeds, the return of the tide; and perchance 

 awaking in the mind of many a poet such thoughts 

 as arose in that of Southey, when he described 

 them, in his poem of " Thalaba;" 



" Meantime, with fuller reach and stronger swell, 



Wave after wave advanced : 

 Each following billow lifted the last foam 

 That trembled on the sand with rainbow hues ^ 

 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-neck," 



We may find these sea anemones on almost all 

 parts of our coast; but we must not go out to 

 look for them when the shades of evening are 

 soon about to gather over the ocean, or when the 

 bright moon is silvering over the waters. They 

 delight in sunshine ; and their clear white, or orange, 

 or scarlet, or pink arms, moving about to catch 

 the food within their reach, can be seen only 

 under the cloudless sky. Beautiful as they are 

 beneath our summer noon, yet they cannot com- 

 pare with the species peculiar to those warmer 

 latitudes, in which every tint brightens into more 

 glowing hues. When in a state of repose, the 

 sea anemones lose all that is attractive in their 

 appearance. They assume the form of a wrinkled 



