OE, GLIMPSES BENEATH THE WATERS. 



ventral fins, peculiarly fitted for the purpose. The 

 pretty little two-spotted sucker, Lepidogaster hima- 

 culatus^ possesses this faculty. 



But the flower-like form into which the arms, 

 or food-seizers, of the Actinice are spread, radiating 

 from a centre like the petals of a flower, was the 

 main reason for supposing a close analogy between 

 these strange creatures and plants — a fancy now 

 utterly abandoned, as it is quite evident that they 

 are furnished with a mouth and stomach, like all 

 true animals, and with a set of arms called tenta- 

 cles for seizing their prey; and, perhaps, at the 

 same time, through the medium of delicate cilise 

 with which the tentacles are connected, with a 

 breathing apparatus, through which a current of 

 water is taken in, and discharged after its oxygen 

 has been abstracted. 



The discovery of the true nature of these singu- 

 lar creatures has not, however, changed their flower- 

 like appearance, which to a superficial observer is as 

 deceptive as ever ; and few (not professed naturalists), 

 observing these singular Zoophytes for the first time, 

 would hesitate to pronounce them a kind of sea- 

 plant. 



Let us turn, for example, to Plate VIII., and 

 note the appearance of the two varieties oi' Actinia 



53 



