ITS SENSE OF TASTE. 119 



tlie stomachal cavity preventing it from being drawn 

 in, as it would be in the case of an Actinia; and 

 hence when the food has disappeared, the lips having 

 hrst embraced it on every side and then covered it, 

 meeting in a little puckered knot in the centre, the 

 whole oral disk projects peq)endicularly, from amidst 

 the tentacles like a thick pillar, through whose pellu- 

 cid sides the contained food is seen as a dark nucleus. 

 Maceration, however, soon softens the morsel, and it 

 is not long before all the parts resume their ordinary 

 proportions and relations ; the tentacles and the outer 

 margin becoming distended with water, and rising to 

 the level of the mouth, if the size of the food still 

 prevents the latter from sinking to theirs. After a 

 period, varying from five or six to twenty-four hours, 

 the morsel is evacuated rather suddenly, very little 

 changed, if it be solid, in form or appearance, and 

 not invested with that glairy mucus, Avhich covers the 

 rejected remains of an Actinia's food. 



There appears to be the sense of taste, or some 

 perception analogous to it, in these creatures, at least 

 so far as to enable them to discriminate in their re- 

 ception of food. I cut a large specimen of one of 

 our most common rock shell-fish, Trochus cinerarias, 

 into many pieces, distributing most of them among 

 my dozen pet Madrepores. They began to take in 

 their morsels with as prompt a voracity as usual, but 

 every one, without an exception, rejected the food 

 before it was half swallowed. The same pieces were 

 taken and swallowed by Actinim hell is, gemmacea, and 

 auguicoma, and by Anthea cereus, though not appa- 

 rently with much gusto. The lean of cooked meat, 



