OCEAN GARDENS ; 



dianthus — the carnation-like Actinia^ as its name 

 imports — and we shall easily excuse onr early natu- 

 ralists their pretty but erroneous fancies concerning 

 them. This species is more subject than many 

 others to vary in colour, even like the flower after 

 which it is named, being found of every tone be- 

 tween snow-white, orange, pale scarlet, and blood 

 red — while some specimens take duskier tints, from 

 a dull brown to a kind of orange green. But we 

 will describe our illustrations of this genus in regu- 

 lar succession, noting what is most peculiar in the 

 subjects of each Plate. 



Plate VI. contains a representation of one of the 

 last-discovered species of Actinice — one which dis- 

 plays a habit that distinguishes it from all its con- 

 geners hitherto described by naturalists, and which 

 has entitled it to be classed as a separate genus, 

 and named Udimrdsia vestita. The generic name 

 is from that of a well-known naturalist, and the 

 specific name, vestita, from its habit of forming for 

 itself a shell, or clothing, into which it has the faculty 

 of retiring at pleasure ; or, if an inhabitant of the 

 shallow water, when the tide recedes, and leaves it 

 inconveniently exposed to the air. This species, 

 unless it have the power of quitting its shell, like 

 some Molluscs, is of necessity permanently fixed and 



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