JL 
Published Monthly at the New York Aquarium, cor. 35th Street and Broadway. 
VOL. i. • 
NEW YORK, MARCH, 1877. 
NO 8. 
SEA ANEMONES. 
BY W. S. WARD. 
“ God quickened in the Sea and in the Rivers, 
So many fishes of so many features, 
- That in the waters we may see all Creatures ; 
. „„„ ..... 
As if the world were in deep waters drowned. 
- For Seas (as Well as Skies) have Sun, Moon, Stars ; 
. (As wel as Air) Swallows, Rooks and Stares ; 
(As wel as Earth) Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons, 
Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers and many millions 
Of other plants more rare, more strange than these, 
As very fishes living in the seas.” 
Whether it be more a flower than a fish, we 
leave it for the anatomist and botanist to de¬ 
termine, if indeed there be yet any disciple 
of Iiinnens who dares to claim for the intel¬ 
ligent Anemone a place in the catalogue of 
plants. Although writing 
to and for those who have 
doubtless availed themselves 
of the pleasures and privi¬ 
leges afforded by a visit to 
the New York Aquarium, we 
shall yet venture briefly to 
describe the structure of the 
anemone as there displayed, 
before referring to its habits 
and haunts. 
When closed—that is, when 
in a state of repose and in¬ 
activity — the anemone is 
nothing more than a gelati¬ 
nous dome, as though the 
contents of a tea-cup full of 
jelly had been placed in a 
bucket of water to cool, ii 
indeed jelly is ever cooled in 
this odd fashion. Conceive 
of this dome slightly de¬ 
pressed at the apex, and wid¬ 
ened out into a thin curtain 
at the base, and we have the 
full-grown anemone at rest. 
When in this position were 
it possible to bisect the creature without dis¬ 
turbing its equilibrium, the transverse section 
would disclose a sac within a sac, as though 
one were to press the sides of a hollow rubber 
ball with a pencil until they had closed about 
it. Now conceive of the upper interior edge 
ANEMONE—Closed. 
of this depressed portion lined with minute 
petal like tentacles, susceptible of a marvelous 
power of expansion, while at the base of the 
cavity—the point where the pencil rests—is 
an orifice through which an entrance to the 
-A. G-FLOUP OP" 1 
lower and exterior sac is obtained, and we 
have in rude outline the peculiar features 
of the anemone. Let it be understood, how¬ 
ever, that in order to comprehend in a satis¬ 
factory manner all the peculiar and complex 
structural features of these strangely beauti¬ 
ful creations, the reader must become a stu- 
HHpOaea in . 
awakening sufficient interest in the subject to 
incite to a more thorough investigation, the 
result will be an abundant recompense both 
to teacher and taught. 
So faithfully has the artist portrayed, in 
the accompanying illustration, the variety 
and peculiar characteristics of these sea- 
flowers, that it is only needed to direct atten¬ 
tion to the results of his efforts as shown in 
these truthful portraitures of the living forms, 
in order that the reader may become familiar 
with the subjects now under 
review. 
Here, grouped in a minia¬ 
ture cavern of the sea, we 
have such a cluster of white, 
golden and red blossoms, 
that were the real objects 
before us, with their varying 
tints and petal-like tentacles, 
we could readily sympathise 
with the discomfiture of the 
bee, observed by Jonathan 
Crouch. Attracted by the 
beauty of a dahlia wartlet 
anemone which was just cov¬ 
ered by a film of sea-water 
in a rock-pool, it buzzed 
straight into the embraces of 
the “crass,” mistaking the 
tentacles for petals, and pay¬ 
ing for the error with its life, 
in a manner we shall soon 
learn, for the remorseless 
fingers clutched it in their 
grasp and transferred it to 
the ready stomach. 
Although possessed of the 
