THE SEA ANEMONES. 588 
which are so familiar under the title of JELLY-FISHES, SLOBBERS, and similar 
euphonious names, They are all united under the name of Discophora, or 
uisc-bearers, because they are furnished with a large umbrella-tike disc, by 
means of which they are enabled to proceed through the water. : 
In the accompanying illustration an example may be seen of the typical genus. 
of this family, which is a native of our own seas. This is a sufficiently common 
species, and may be found plentifully on our shores, together with its kindred. 
There are few more beautiful sights than to stand on a pier-head or lie in a 
boat, and watch the Medusz passing in shoals thrcugh the clear water, 
pulsating as if the whole being were but a translucent heart, trailing behind 
JELLY-FISH.—(Afrdusa Aequorea.) 
them their delicate fringes of waving cilia, and rolling gently over as if in 
excess of happiness. At night, many of the Medusz put on new beauties, 
glowing with phosphorescent light like marine fire-flies, and giving to the 
ocean an almost unearthly beauty that irresistibly recalls to the mind the 
“sea of glass mingled with fire.” 
ZOOPHYTES. 
QUITTING the Acalephz, we come to the vast class of ZOOPHYTES, or 
animal plants, so called because, though really belonging to the animal 
kingdom, many of them bear a singularly close resemblance to vegetable 
forms. Their substance is always gelatinous and fleshy, and round the 
entrance to the stomach are set certain tentacles, used in catching prey and 
conveying it to the stomach. These tentacles are armed with myriads of . 
offensive weapons contained in little capsules, and capable of being discharged 
with great force. Organs of sight, smell, taste, and hearing seem to be 
totally absent, though it is possible that an extended sense of touch may 
compensate the creature for these deficiencies. 
THE highest form of true Zoophyte is, undoubtedly, that which is so 
familiar under the name of SEA-ANEMONE—a name singularly inappropriate, 
inasmuch as the resemblance to an anemone is very far-fetched ; while that 
to the chrysanthemum, daisy, or dandelion is very close. 
. The widely-spread Anemone, with the circlet of pearl-like beads at the 
base of its tentacles, is the well-known 
BEADLET, the most common of all this order 
on the British coasts. It is a singularly 
hardy species, living mostly on the rocks 
that. lie between high and low water mark. 
It is perhaps more variable in colour than 
any of the British Actinia, the body taking 
all imaginable hues, passing from bright  Actinia mesembryanthemum. 
scarlet to leaf-green, graduating from scarlet 
to crimson, from crimson tc orange, from orange to yellow, and from yellow 
to green. The spherical beads around its mouth are more persistent in 
