Actinud^. BADIATA. Cokalliphoka. 401 
Family — ACTINIIDJ3 (Sea Anemones). 
The animals belonging to this famil}' are composed 
of a fleshy body resembling a truncated cone seated on 
A flat plain base, and generally attached by a glutinous 
secretion to stones, rocks, or shells, &c., in the sea. 
The centre of the upper surface is dimpled with the 
opening into the mouth, and this aperture is furnished 
with numerous simple, tubular, retractile tentacula, 
placed in one or more series round it. The body is 
variously coloured, and the tentacula, brilliant with lively 
hues and disposed in circles, give a very striking re- 
presentation of the petals of a beautiful flower. It is 
from this resemblance that they receive the names of 
Sea Anemones, and so like are they to a flower that, 
as Mr. Gosse tells us, bees have been arrested by the 
resemblance while flying over them, and have been 
seen to dart through the water to reach them. A 
cluster of these elegant creatures, seen a few feet 
below the surface, in clear still water, with their 
tentacula fully displayed, presents a striking appearance; 
and travellers who have watched them in tropical 
seas speak enthusiastically of their beauty. These 
tentacula are furnished with the peculiar nettling ap- 
paratus described in Medusae. 
The movements of the Actinice are very slow. Some 
indeed are permanently attached, but others are only 
temporarily adherent, to foreign bodies. When these 
move they glide along with an impercep'ible motion, 
or they detach themselves altogether from their resting 
place, previously distending the body with water, to 
render it more buoyant, and then allowing themselves 
to be carried along with the random motion of the 
waves. They are very sensitive to external irritations 
and to atmospheric changes, closing themselves up in 
cloudy and stormy weather, and expanding themselves 
again when the sky is serene. The family is repre- 
sented, in Plate 2, fig. 13, by a common British and 
very pretty species. Actinia (Cribrina) diuntlius, the 
white animal flower. 
In the family Zoanthidae the animals have a hard, 
cartilaginous outer skin, often strengthened by the 
deposition of earthy grains within its surface. In the 
genus Zoanthus the body is elongated, conic, and 
pedunculated. The animals are distinct from each 
other, but several individuals arise from a common 
base, which is in the form of a creeping stem. The 
family is represented in Plate 2, fig. 12, by an exotic 
species, Zoanthus Ellisii. 
COEALLIPHORA (Stony Corals). 
By far the greater number of Zoanthoid polypes, as 
they grow, deposit in the cellular substance of the flesh 
of their back an immense quantity of calcareous matter, 
which enlarges as the animal increases in size, and, in 
fact, fills up all those portions of the substance of the 
animal, which, by the growth of new parts, are no 
longer wanted for its nourishment; and in this manner 
they form a strong and hard case, amongst the folds 
of which they can contract themselves, so as to be pro- 
tected from external injury, and by the same means 
VoL. II. 107 
form for themselves a permanent attachment, which 
prevents their being tossed about by every wave of the 
element in which they live. The stony substances are 
called corals, and their mode of formation causes them 
exactly to represent the animal which secretes them — 
thus giving origin to the numerous sub-divisions in their 
classification. 
The formation of the various coral islands, and the 
vast reefs which act as barriers, and which fringe the 
shores of many continents, has given rise to a good deal 
of conjecture and discussion. As described by various 
voyagers and naturalists, they form exceedingly beauti- 
ful and interesting sights. Immense spaces of the 
ocean are studded with islands and reefs formed by 
these little Anthozoid polypes. As Mr. Darwin says, 
we feel surprised when travellers tell us of the vast 
dimensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins ; but 
how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these when 
compared to those mountains of stone accumulated by 
the agency of various minute and tender animals! The 
Lagoon islands, or “ Atolls,” are often many leagues in 
diameter; the Radack group alone forming an irregular 
square, five hundred and twenty miles in length, ai d 
two hundred and forty broad; the barrier reefs on the 
coast of Australia extend nearly a thousand miles; 
and the fringing or shore reefs to nearly as much. 
Such a result from such a cause is marvellous : — 
“ Compared with this amazing edifice, 
Eaised by the weakest creatures in existence, 
What are the works of intellectual man? 
Towers, temples, palaces, and sepulchres. 
In honour of the living and the dead, 
M^hat are they ? — fine wrought miniatures of art. 
Dust in the balance, atoms in the gale. 
Compar’d with these achievements in the deep. 
Were all the monuments of olden time. 
In days when there were giants on the earth: 
Babel’s stupendous folly, though it aimed 
To scale heaven’s battlements, was but a toy. 
The plaything of a world in infancy— 
The ramparts, towers, and gates of Babylon, 
Built for eternity — though where they stood 
Ruin itself stands still for lack of work, 
And Desolation keeps unbroken Sabbath — 
Great Babylon, in its full moon of empire. 
Even when its ‘head of gold ’ was smitten off, 
And from a monarch chang’d into a brute — 
Great Babylon was like a wreath of sand 
Left by one tide, and cancell’d by the next. 
Egypt’s dread wonders, still defying Time — 
Egypt’s gray piles of hieroglyphic grandeur — 
Her Pyramids would be mere pinnacles. 
Her giant statues, wrought from rock of granite, 
But puny ornaments for such a pile 
As this stupendous mound of Catacombs, 
Fill’d with dry mummies of the builder worms.’’ 
Various theories have been produced to account for 
the formation of these immense structures. One of 
these is, that the coral islands or “Atolls” are based on 
submarine craters, and that they rise from profound 
depths till they reach the surface. But to this and 
other theories there are great objections. This is not 
the place, nor have we space to devote to the consider- 
ation of this question; but from the observations of Mr. 
Darwin and others, it would appear that the animals 
forming coral reefs or rocks cannot exist or flourish at 
greater depths than from twenty to thirty fathoms. 
From this fact he concludes “it is absolutely certain 
