56 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
My other window is adorned with a marine collection 
similarly arranged. The tank contains the choicest of 
the gorgeous sea-flowers— 
“ Blossoms that ope in the oozy deep, 
And ne’er lure the bee to their green retreat.” 
I have all the well-known anemones, and a goodly 
number of new and rare species. Some are like daisies, 
others like the bundles of hissing snakes the ancients 
wove around the heads of furies; one kind is an exact 
imitation of a rosette of blue ribbons, another of a coral- 
coloured chrysanthemum ; but the most prized of all for 
glorious form and colour is the huge carnation or plumed 
anemone, which expands its thousands of living fringes 
into the form of a very fabulous carnation of mammoth 
dimensions. These are ever changing in form and 
aspect;—now they are lifeless lumps of jelly, now 
alabaster columns, now transparent balloons puffed to 
bursting with absorbed water, and again the flowery form 
predominates, thousands of petal-like fingers expand; 
and the sea-bottom, transferred to my room, shows me 
its floral gems, that rival those of the garden in splen¬ 
dour, but which move and change mysteriously, and show 
themselves to be endowed with a mute but wonderful 
life. Lifeless as they may appear for hours, their will at 
last determines them to prove that they can glide and 
climb, and float and cling; aye, and grasp in an embrace 
of death whatever livelier creature may unwarily come 
within reach of their barbed threads and flower-like 
fingers. 
Besides these, I have the pretty Serpulas, that make 
