Dr M'Bain's Notes on Actinia mesembryanthemum. 281 



is only by the labour of many observers that a more or less 

 satisfactory approximation to the solution of this interesting- 

 problem can be hopefully looked for. A general outline of 

 the life-history of an actinia or sea-anemone, kept in captivity 

 for a period of fifty years, and still alive, surrounded with its 

 progeny of the second generation, is in itself noteworthy, and 

 highly interesting to naturalists. And it occurred to me that 

 the last meeting of the 107th Session of the Royal Physical 

 Society would be a fit and convenient opportunity to exhibit 

 the living specimen, along with several living individuals of 

 the first and second generation. 



My first acquaintance with this Actinia was in 1846. It 

 was at that time li^dng in Great King Street, and had been 

 in the possession of Sir John Graham Dalyell for eighteen 

 years. He had then nearly completed his great work " On 

 Rare and Remarkable Animals," and I saw the plates and 

 figures of the actinia in MS. It was never exhibited in 

 public, so far as I am aware, during his life-time. It was 

 shown by Dr Fleming to his class in the New College, with 

 the significant caution, " Oculis non manibus." It went with 

 me to the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen, 

 1859, when the late Prince Consort presided, and was ex- 

 hibited in the zoological section. It was exhibited at a con- 

 versazione of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1872. And 

 in this room, four years ago, at a meeting of " The Edinburgh 

 Naturalists' Field Club." This is the fifth time only, to my 

 knowledge, the specimen has been exhibited in public. It is 

 highly sensitive to physical impressions ; it may be also, for 

 anything I know, to moral ones. To give it the benefit of 

 the doubt, therefore, I hope it will meet a friendly reception. 

 The few remarks I have to make will consist chiefly of 

 observations made on this actinia by Sir John Graham 

 Dalyell, with some additional notes on the birth and number 

 of its offspring since his time. 



This celebrated specimen is well known in the world of 

 science, as also to a wide circle of non-scientific friends ; and 

 a portion of its domestic life has been recorded by several 

 eminent writers on natural history both at home and abroad. 

 The familiar name of " Granny " has been conferred on it, to 



