354 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 9, 1858. 
SEA ELOWERS. 
This cold weather is rather adverse to the full enjoyment 
of water scenes, and to talk of shoal gatherings, and brook 
dragging, might make delicate folks shrug their shoulders ; 
but I find it very agreeable to stir the fire with one hand, 
while with the other I point my friend to a pretty collection 
of Sea flowers, lately fished for me on the French coast. 
Lovers of the aquarium should know that the available stock 
is no longer confined to the species indigenous to our own 
shores, and it may be a bit of welcome news, if I here make 
known one of the plans now adopted for securing specimens 
from other coasts. The idea originated with Mr. Hall, of 
London Wall, who opened a subscription list, to which all 
subscribers of a guinea were entitled to a guinea’s worth of 
foreign gatherings. With the subscriptions in his pocket, 
and a pair of water boots on his legs, Hall steamed away, and 
at last found himself treading the sands on a chosen spot of 
the French coast, where Actinia abounds. With a plentiful 
gathering he returned, and at once distributed to his subscribers 
a proportionate number of specimens, in liquidation of their 
subscriptions, and my share of the booty has been delighting 
I • me for six weeks past, and it is with no small pleasure that I 
i contrast their novel forms and colourings with those from 
6 12 
our own coasts, and from which they differ much more than 
might have been expected. Bright orange and amber, de¬ 
licate opal, or intense snowy white, are the predominant 
colours; and although it is easy to detect in many the closest 
possible alliance with well-known species, of which they are 
but delicately-coloured varieties, others have such distinct 
characteristics, that it cannot be doubted the lists of species 
admitted to our tanks will soon be considerably increased. 
When Mr. Hall goes off to make his next gathering, I pur¬ 
pose making arrangements with him, with a view to deter¬ 
mine the genera and species distinctly before the gatherings 
are distributed, and if we can get him to push on to the 
Mediterranean this summer, we may, in our aquarium studies, 
manage to keep pace with the horticultural world ; the glory 
of which is its bold ignoring of both latitude and longitude, 
in the appropriation of specimens for culture. 
Sea Anemones are the kinds of stock which take precedence 
in the culture of the marine aquarium. There is much cer¬ 
tainty attendant on their preservation, immense variety, as 
to their forms and colours, and they admit us to their own 
peculiar region of Protean changes, so that we never fatigue 
of observing their habits, or admiring their changing beauty. 
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In the subjoined cut are represented four of the best Sea j 
! Anemones, whether for a beginner or an adept. In the ! 
richest collection the common “Mes,” or Actinia mesembry- 
anthemum, is as valuable as the rarest, on account of its in¬ 
trinsic beauty, and as to hardiness and longevity, no creature 
of the deep, ever yet brought within domesticating influences, 
can equal it. When all goes w r rong, and the pretty creatures 
drop from their stony pinnacles and perish ;—when the water 
gets putrid, and, perhaps, half a dozen degrees of specific 
gravity too dense—“ Mes ” will still be found alive and un¬ 
hurt, and will display its coral fingers and bright blue beads 
the moment he is lifted into a purer element. This is known 
by many popular names, of which the most common is 
“ Strawberry Anemone,” for the most plentiful form of it is 
that which strongly resembles, when closed, a well-grown Sir 
Harry . But it has so many varieties, that for mere effect 
this species is, in itself, sufficient for a small tank. In its most 
common form it is spotted on a crimson ground, Strawberry 
fashion ; in another it is of a deep maroon, without spots. 
There is another variety of a deep quiet chestnut; another of 
a dark olive green, and a rarer and exquisitely beautiful one 
of a very bright, almost grass, green. I have sometimes 
managed to get one or two specimens of each of these va¬ 
rieties together at the same time, and by a little manoeuvring 
to have them all expanded, side by side, and their distinct¬ 
ness and variety had a most charming effect. 
But there are other reasons for commencing the study of 
marine objects with the w r ell-known “ Mes,” for its habits give 
us the key to the general management of collections, and its 
anatomy illustrates the internal construction, and physiological | 
economy, of the w T hole class of Zoophytes. Take a plump I 
“ Mes ” that has not been handled, or in any way ill used, and 
cut him clean in half, vertically, and drop each half into a 
vessel of fresh sea-w r ater, that has been agitated well; throw in 
also a tuft of Ulva ; leave the divided victim alone for a week 
in a very partial daylight, and you will be surprised to find, 
that each division has become a perfect animal. Then either 
lift out the specimens into fresh sea-water, or draw off the 
water they are in, and agitate it in the open air, and return it 
quickly, and each will at once expand, and present as perfect a 
shape and arrangement of parts, as if their several origins had 
been distinct, and no relationship existed between them. The 
experiment illustrates the nearness of this tribe to the vegetable 
kingdom, and justifies the collective term Zoophyte, as ap¬ 
plied to the various divisions of this lowest section of the 
animal kingdom. 
