4056 Notices of New Books. 



as if a quantity of powdered chalk had been mixed with it, so that you 

 cannot see how to direct the blows, you cannot discern whether you 

 have uncovered the Actinia or not, and frequently are obliged to give 

 up the attempt when nearly accomplished, simply because you can 

 neither see hole nor Actinia, and as to feeling in the pap-like mud 

 that your implement has been making, it is out of the question. Sup- 

 posing, however, that you have got on pretty well, that by making a 

 current in the pool with your hand you have washed away the clouded 

 water sufficiently to see the whereabouts, and that you perceive that 

 another well-directed blow or two will split off the side of the cavity, 

 — you have now to take care so to proportion the force, that at last 

 you may neither crush the animal with the chisel on the one hand, 

 nor, on the other, drive it off so suddenly that it shall fall with the 

 fragment to the bottom of the pool out of reach. 



"However, we will suppose you have happily detached and secured 

 your Actinia without injury. But how unlike its former self, when 

 you were desirous of making its closer acquaintance, is it now ! A 

 little hard globose knob of flesh, not so big as a schoolboy's marble, 

 is the creature that just now expanded to the sun's rays a lovely disk 

 of variegated hues, with a diameter greater than that of a Spanish dol- 

 lar. It is moreover covered with tenacious white slime, which exudes 

 from it faster than you can clear it away ; and altogether its appear- 

 ance is anything but inviting. You throw it into a jar of water, which 

 of course you have with you when collecting living zoophytes, and 

 thus bring it home, when you transfer it to a tumbler or other suitable 

 vessel of clear sea-water freshly drawn. And here let us watch its 

 changes ; which however will not be effected immediately : for it will 

 not expand itself in all its original beauty until it has taken a fresh 

 attachment for its base, which will not in all probability be for a day 

 or two at least. 



" The body or stem of Actinia bellis is more or less cylindrical ge- 

 nerally ; though subject to some change in this respect, for it is occa- 

 sionally a little enlarged, as it approaches the disk : the sucking base 

 is slightly larger than the diameter of the body, which in specimens 

 of an inch and a half expanse, may be about half an inch. 



" The length of the body varies much, according to the depth of 

 the cavity in which the animal lives, for it must expand its disk at the 

 surface. In the open water in a vase, when it appears at home, it 

 ma)' commonly be about an inch froui the base to the expansion of 

 the disk, but I have a beautiful specimen before my eye at this mo- 

 ment, which has stretched itself to a height of three inches, expanding 



