THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 3 
Actinia are easily procured, and kept alive a long 
time in sea-water without difficulty; in a glass 
vessel their beauty is displayed to advantage, need- 
ing only the precaution of supplying them with 
pure sea-water every two or three days at most, 
or they will throw off their skin in ragged pieces, 
become discoloured, and die. They are capable of 
very long fasts, although, as I observed before, vo- 
racious enough when food is to be obtained. Dr. 
Johnston tells us of a specimen of the A. gemmacea 
once brought to him, “that might have been ori- 
ginally two inches in diameter, and that had some- 
how contrived to swallow a valve of Pecten maximus 
(the great Scallop)-of the size of an ordinary saucer. 
The shell, fixed within the stomach, was so placed 
as to divide it completely into two halves, so that 
the body, stretched tensely over, had become thin 
and flattened like a pancake. All communication 
between the inferior portion of the stomach and 
the mouth was of course prevented; yet, instead 
of emaciating, and dying of atrophy, the animal 
had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a 
very untoward. accident, to increase its enjoyments 
and its chances of double fare. A new mouth, fur- 
nished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was 
opened upon what had been the base, and led to 
the under stomach: the individual had indeed be- 
come a sort of Siamese twin, but with greater inti- 
macy and extent in its unions !”* 
Each of these animal flowers, except in the case 
of such accidental monstrosities as the one just men- 
* Brit. Zooph. p. 224, 
G 
