90 HANDY BOOK OF 



Both the Sea Anemones and Corals helong to the widely 

 ramifying class of true Polypes — animals of simple struc- 

 ture, which stand almost on the last stage of animalization. 

 All varieties possess in common a sac-shaped body, sur- 

 rounding a cylindrical cavity, which opens at top into a 

 wide mouth. This is surrounded by a fringe of tentacles, 

 which extend and contract voluntarily, and carry food to 

 the hungry predacious animal. Generally, firmly attached 

 to their place of birth, or at the most, capable of only 

 limited motion, the Polypes are unable to procure their food 

 by fighting, personal strength, or cunning. Just as the 

 helpless young of the higher animals are fed by their 

 parents, they exist on what their kind mother, the ocean, 

 conveys to them. 



Their prehensile organ^ are traps, and not weapons ; but, 

 owing to the countless number of creatures with which the 

 ocean swarms, especially on the coasts and in the shallow 

 water where they have taken up their abode, the Polypes 

 are never in want of famous food. No lazzarone could 

 wish a pleasanter mode of life than that of a Polype, for 

 in it the dolce far niente is found in its most beautiful 

 form. 



In order that the capturing apparatus may serve its pur- 

 pose perfectly, it is provided with countless small, needle- 

 like weapons, which not merely wound the little animals 

 that come within reach, but also poison them with an acid 

 fluid. "Woe to the small crustacean, or the tiny fish, which 

 comes too near the outspread, radiated crown of a Sea 

 Anemone : surrounded in an instant by a hundred arms, it 

 is suddenly stunned, and carried without further ceremony 

 to the gaping abyss. 



It is easily to be understood, that animals which require 

 such a slight expenditure of intelligence for existence, have 

 no nerves, or, at any rate, in a most rudimentary state — a 

 negative happiness, for which many a sensitive, hysterioal 

 person, might possibly envy them. 



