102 
REVIEWS. 
Here and there we meet with a pleasant passage, on such subjects as 
the ill success of amateurs at the sea-side (which no one, from personal 
experience, can describe so well as Mr. Lewes), and the difficulties with 
which fishermen are induced to collect marine animals. Indeed, the 
perusal of the entire work has led us to regret that so good a writer as 
Mr. Lewes should have chosen a subject which he is totally incompetent 
to do justice to. 
Actinologia Britannica : a History or the British Sea-Anemones 
and Madrepores, with coloured Figures oe all the Species. By 
Philip Henry Gosse, F. B. S. London: J. Yan Yoorst. No. I., 
March 1, 1858. Price Is. 6d. pp. 32, and one coloured Plate. 
Part I. of a long desired work is at last before us, and we hasten to 
give a sketch of its contents, and to inform our readers of their nature 
and of their merits. The first thing we find on opening the pages is a 
handsomely executed lithograph; this we will not now allude to, hut 
pass on to the letter-press. First, we have a general description of a Sea- 
Anemone, and an explanation of the terms used in describing one. 
Among the terms used there are none very original; indeed, we would 
have been better pleased if a few good technical words had been adopted 
as descriptive of the anatomy of these animals ; and if the homology of 
the various parts of the cavity had been alluded to and illustrated by a 
few woodcuts, it would have been much more instructive. Next we 
have the characters of the sub-order Actinaria, of which this monograph 
is to treat, which sub-order is placed under Actinoida, an order of the 
class Zoophyta. We do not like this word, and we are sorry to find Mr. 
Gosse using it; we think the sooner the word is forgotten, the better: 
like the Badiata of Cuvier, it brings up to our mind’s eye a most hete¬ 
rogeneous assemblage of animals belonging to different types of crea¬ 
tion ; and since modern research has placed all these, or at least nearly 
all of these, in their proper places, we see no good reason for perpetuat¬ 
ing a name that but leads to false impressions. Under the tribe of As- 
trseacea we find the first British family—that of Sagartiadae—in which 
the tentacles are simple, arranged in uninterrupted circles, and the body 
perforated for the emission of armed retractile cords. The typical genus 
of this family is most undoubtedly Sagartia; the one which Mr. Gosse 
places first in the list, Actinolobia \Blainv.), being by no means a charac¬ 
teristic one, the tentacles not being arranged in uninterrupted circles, 
nor the body being furnished with acetabulae. We only possess a 
single species of the genus Actinolobia, the well-known Dianthus ; the 
presence of hut a single gonidial groove, and the margin of the column, 
forming a thickened parapet, are among the chief characteristics of this 
genus. We have very full details given us about the Plumose Anemone, 
its habits and habitats. Mr. Gosse says he never had an opportunity of 
