OR, GLIMPSES BENEATH THE WATERS. 



in a most extraordinary manner ; a new moutli was 

 opened below the division, furnislied with two rows 

 of new tentacles, and thus the lower portion re- 

 gained a means of taking in nourishment, the 

 whole creature forming a singular double monster, 

 that, not contented with its one giant mouth, sur- 

 rounded with its hundred arms to supply its vora- 

 cious appetite, had actually succeeded in supplying 

 itself with a second, equally furnished with its 

 formidable feeding apparatus. 



In Plate IX. a very beautifully distinct form of 

 this singular race of animals is very carefully de- 

 lineated — Actinia anguicoma — which seems to be 

 shaking loose a mass of serpent-like hair, like 

 another Medusa; from which appearance, its spe- 

 cific name anguicoma^ signifying snake-haired, has 

 doubtless been given. 



The tentacles of the Actinia mesembrianthemum 

 are generally of a beautiful rosy-pink, and the body 

 of a rich warm brown. But of all the species, 

 A. crassicornis — represented in the lower part of 

 Plate X. — is perhaps the handsomest, the orifice or 

 mouth being of a delicate straw tone, the tentacles- 

 white, variegated with bands of delicate pink, and 

 the body, or stem, a rich orange-brown, thickly 

 sprinkled with tubercles of bright yellow. This fine 



57 



