MAEINE BOTANY. 91 



They neither hear nor see: and, indeed, why should 

 they ? Owing to their impossible or defective locomotion, 

 the possession of the higher faculties would be of no aid to 

 them, to escape the attacks of their enemies just as little as 

 it was necessary to facilitate their capture of booty, which 

 comes to them spontaneously, without their having occasion 

 to see or hear. The sense of feeling, which is mainly con- 

 centrated in their prehensile apparatus, and at whose signal 

 they cling round their prey convulsively, or hide them- 

 selves, with lightning speed, on hostile contact, was evidently 

 sufficient for all the demands of their limited existence ; 

 the more so, that it is extraordinarily sensitive of various 

 irritating causes. The Sea Anemone feels the light : be- 

 neath a bright, clear sky, it unfolds all its beauty ; but if a 

 dark cloud obscure the brilliancy of the sun, the radiated 

 crown is contracted, and the flower becomes a shapeless 

 mass. But we should greatly err, if we thought it capable 

 of feeling pain. 



Only a few Polypes are simple and capable of movement, 

 and among these are the Sea Anemones. Here we see a 

 solitary flower, which springs from a simple stalk, containing 

 a stomach. With their broad base, the Anemones attach 

 themselves so firmly to stones and rocks, that they can only 

 be separated from them with great difficulty, though, if they 

 feel a fancy for moving, they can change their locality in 

 various ways. They glide slowly and almost imperceptibly 

 along the stalk ; or, turning over, they use the tentacles as 

 feet, or, blowing out the body with water, lessen its specific 

 gravity, and allow themselves to be carried by the current 

 whither it may please. 



Their tenacity of life is extraordinary; and for this 

 quality, too, they may be envied by all those who do not 

 at all like the idea of a separation from the pleasant habit 

 of existing and working. Let them be dipped in water, hot 

 enough to blister the hand — let them be frozen and thawed, 

 or place them in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump — 



