356 DIVISION IV. RADIATA.—CLASS IV. POLYPI. 
very lively colors. The tentacula are arranged in several rows about the 
mouth, resembling the petals of a double flower, whence these animals are 
called “Sea Anemones.” The light exercises great influence upon them, and 
they open or close their tentacula according to the fineness of the day, like 
so many real flowers. The Actiniw are common to all seas; but in the 
warmer climates they grow to a larger size, and expand in all the glory and 
splendor of a flower-garden. They are very voracious animals, and feed 
apparently on whatever comes within their reach — crustacea, small fishes, 
and shelled mollusks, which they capture with their outspreading tentacula, 
and convey, with remarkable quickness, to the mouth, and thence to the 
stomach, ejecting the empty crusts and shells with the greatest ease. 
The A. Sendlis is found on the sands, in which it conceals itself when 
disturbed. It is about three inches wide, with a rough, leathery covering, 
of an orange color, and two rows of tentacula, adorned with a rose-colored 
ring. 
A. Bquint has a soft, finely-striated skin, of a bright purple, frequently 
spotted with green. 
Lucernonia. — The Lucernarice are very nearly connected with the pre- 
ceding group, but are of softer substance. The bell-shaped body rises from 
a small stem, generally found attached to sea-plants on a rocky bottom. 
The tentacles are arranged in tufts, at regular intervals, round the border of 
the disk. The crystalline body sparkles with greenish and reddish tints, and 
swims with considerable swiftness, by alternate contraction and expansion, 
whenever it desires to change its place. 
ORDER II. GELATINOSI. 
The animals composing this order are wholly gelatinous, with no horny, 
fleshy, or firm substance in the body. A simple cavity serves for a stomach. 
They constitute the genus 
Hypra.— Cuvier says that these Polypi are the simplest of all animals 
in their organization, the whole of which consists of a small gelatinous horn, 
beset with filaments which serye as tentacula; still they can swim, crawl, 
and even walk, after the manner of the Loopers, or Geometrical Caterpil- 
Jars. They stir the water with their tentacula, and thus bring their prey 
within their reach. They love the light, which appears to affect them pow- 
erfully and agreeably. They may be multiplied indefinitely by a division of 
the body; but the natural reproduction is by buds, which shoot out from 
various parts of the parent animal, and drop off when matured. They are 
found in stagnant fresh water, and vary in color from green to gray. 
