758 



I'Jiolo bj W. Siiiillr-KoU, F.Z.H.] [i[ilJo,a-u,i-&a. 



A JIUSHEOOM-CORAL FULLY EXPANDED. 



In this condition tlie coraL or slieleton of tlie animal, is entirely concealed. 



The Living Animals of the World 



CHAPTER VI. 



CORALS, SEA-ANEMONES, AND 

 JELLY-FISHES. 



WITH the Sea-anemones and 

 Jelly-fislies almost the lowest 

 organised group of living 

 animals is reached. As typified by an 

 ordinary sea-anemone, the body may 

 be described as a simple sac, the 

 orifice of which is inverted for some 

 little distance, and held in position 

 with relation to the outer wall by a 

 series of radiating partitions. One or 

 more rows of tentacles, varying in 

 number and character according to the 

 species, surround the mouth of this 

 jiartially inverted sac. There is no 

 distinct intestinal track, the whole 

 space enclosed within the outer wall 

 and ramifying among the radiating 

 partitions containing the digestive 

 juices. The radiating membranous 



partitions develop upon their surfaces the reproductive elements, and in the case of Corals, 



which are merely skeleton-producing 



sea-anemones, partly secrete within 



them the symmetrical radiating cal- 

 careous plates so characteristic of the 



group. 



Some thirty odd species of sea- 

 anemones are indigenous to Britisli 



waters, and one or more of these 



will be familiar to most readers. The 



Strawberry-a^emoxk, clinging to the 



rocks as a hemispherical lump of 



crimson, green, brown, or red and 



yellow speckled jelly when the tide is 



down, and expanding like a beautiful 



flower when the waters flow back upon 



it, is the commonest and in many 



respects the most beautiful of all, the 



circlet of turquoise beads, regarded as 



rudimentary eyes, developed around 



the outer margin of the tentacles, add- 

 ing a charm possessed by few other 



species. The Dahlia-anemone, whose 



expanded disk and innumerable petal- 

 like tentacles may measure as much 



as b or 8 inches m diameter, is the 



1 , 7> •,• 1 . rr., ,. MUSHEOOM-COBALS, AVITH THE AXEMONE-LIKE TOLYP 



largest JJntish species. These dimen- expanded 



sions are, however, vastly exceeded by r,, , ,v , „ . , . 



' ' -' J T.aken Ibrough the water on a coral-reef. 



