5 °° 
CCELENTERA TES. 
small polyp, which settles clown and commences to secrete its pedestal and then to 
bud, thus starting a new coral-stock. 
Six-Rayed Polyps, —Order Hexactinia. 
This name must not be taken too strictly. It is true that it was applied in 
good faith, because it was believed that this order always had exactly six or 
some multiple of six as the number of the tentacles; but corals are tied by no 
such rigid rules, and all we can say is, that the number of tentacles in this 
order generally approximates to some multiple of six. Among the Hexactinia 
the sea - anemones take the first place. They spread over all seas, being 
especially plentiful in the temperate zones, near the coast, at depths which 
bring them within the reach of every observer. They are distinguished by their 
solitary manner of life, their size, and their vivid and usually beautiful colouring. 
The skin is firm and leathery, and often covered with warts. It does not secrete 
any calcareous skeleton either inside or outside, so that the animal is soft and 
capable of great contraction and changes 
of shape. Most sea-anemones use the 
basal disc for attachment, and can move 
from place to place by means of it, but 
a few species bore into sand with the 
posterior end of the body, or else secrete 
or build a sheath which they inhabit. 
In our coloured Plate are depicted, in 
their natural brilliant colours, a number 
of sea-anemones living in the Naples 
aquarium. To the left, in the fore¬ 
ground, are two examples, one extended 
and the other contracted, of the red 
Actinia equina, which varies greatly 
in colour. In the centre of the group, 
somewhat to the left, there is an ex¬ 
tended specimen, and near the right 
edge a strongly contracted specimen of 
the lovely green Actinia carl. Other beautiful forms are found in the two 
striped anemones, Ragactis pulclira and Cereactis aurantiaca. The sun-anemone 
(Heliactis bellis), again, varies greatly in colour but is always elegant, and the 
same may be said of the trumpet - anemone with spotted tentacles (AEptasia 
mutabilis). In the foreground at the centre a hermit-crab is seen carrying with 
him his guest, the cloak-anemone ( Adamsia palliata). A less conspicuous anemone 
(Eloactis mazelii) is provided with somewhat long cylindrical tentacles. The 
Anemonia sulcata lets its tentacles float gracefully, while the vestlet ( Cerianthus 
membranaceus), of varying colour, hungrily stretches out its arms in all directions. 
Cladactis costce, which is covered with warts, is no less voracious, but with apparent 
apathy allows its tentacles to droop around it. 
These quiet, externally beautiful, and apparently harmless creatures are in 
larvae of sea-anemone (magnified). 
