388 POLYPI, 
ORDER If. 
CARNOSI. 
The first order comprises fleshy animals that usually fix 
themselves by their base, several of which, however, have the 
power of crawling on that base, or even of detaching it alto- 
gether, and swimming or suffering themselves to be carried 
away by the current. Most commonly however they merely 
expand the oral aperture, which is also the anus. It is sur- 
rounded with a greater or less number of tentacula, and opens 
into a stomach en cul-de-sac. Between this internal sac and 
the external skin we find a tolerably complex, but still ob- 
scure organization, chiefly consisting of fibrous and vertical 
leaflets, to which the ovaries, that resemble tangled threads, 
are attached. The intervals of these leaflets communicate 
with the interior of the tentacula, and it appears that water 
penetrates into and issues from them by small orifices in the 
circumference of the mouth; the Actiniz, at least, sometimes 
ejaculate it inthis manner(1). 
Actinia, Lin. 
The fleshy body of these Polypi is frequently ornamented with 
bright colours, and exhibits numerous tentacula placed round the 
mouth in several ranges, like the petals of a double flower, and hence. 
their common name of Sea-4nemones. They are extremely sensible 
to the influence of light, and expand or close in proportion to the 
fineness of the day. When they retract their tentacula, the opening 
through which those organs pass contracts and closes over them like 
the mouth of a purse. 
(1) See Spix, Ann. du Mus., XIII, xxxiii, f. 1—5. 
