"When we view the inside of this animal dissected lengthwise, wo find a little tube leading from the mouth to the stomach, from whence there rise eight wrinkled small guts, in a circular order, with a yellowish soft substance in them ; these bend over, in the form of arches, towards the lower parts of the bulb, from whence they may be traced down wards to the narrow part of the upright tube, till they come to the fleshy adhering tube, where some of them may be perceived entering into a papilla, or the beginning of an animal of the like kind, most probably to convey nourishment till it is provided with claws : the remaining part of these slender guts are continued on their fleshy tube, without doubt, for the same purpose of producing and supporting more young ones from tho same common parent.
"The many longitudinal fibres that wo discover lying parallel to each other, on the inside of the semitransparent skin, are all inserted in the several claws round the animara month, and are plainly the tendons or muscles for moving and directing the claws at the will of the animal ; these may be likewise traced down to the adhering tube." A strong light incommodes the A eti Aim, noise) startles them, they are affected by odoum, and fresh water causes them to die. These various feelings originate in their groat irritability, which appears to increase according to their Penferings. They can support a temperature as low as 45', and np to 140', Fakir.; but beyond these extremes they periah. They are often left exposed to the air during spring-tides but in such cases they always retain n great quantity of water, which they squirt out with force when molested.
These singular creature* have a power of reproduction equal to that PO well known in the Fresh-Water Polyp (Polypus riridii, Bory., Hydra riridis). They may be cut perpendicularly or across, and each cutting will give origin to a new animal. The young A dinia are seen issuing, already formed, sometimes from the mouth ; and sometimes the base of the old animal is dissevered, a portion remaining attached to the rock, where it continues to live, increasing in size, becoming more and more rounded, while, in a short time, a mouth, stomach, and tentacula are formed, presenting a complete Actinia. At length, the aide-portions of this base give out globules, which are detached, fix themselves upon adjacent rocks, where they grow, and produce a new colony like the pareut The Actinic feed upon small crustaceous and molluscous animals and fishes, which they seize with their tentacula, and afterwards disgorge what they cannot digest. They are found in every sea, some
suspended from the vaults of sub-marine reefs, others covering the more exposed sides of rocks with a sort of flower-like tapestry, and some confining themselves to the smooth sands, on the surface of which they spread out their tentacula, and even withdraw under the sand when danger threatens. Each species, indeed, generally selects a peculiar haunt. Some of the species have the power of stinging, like the A caleplur, which depends on their possessing in their structure the same organ as the A ealephm, and other forms of polypes, and known under the name of Thread-Cells, or Stiuging Hairs.
Many of the species are used as food in tropical countries, on the coasts of which they are more numerous than iu colder climates.
The genera comprising the family A ct niadce form several natural groups : A. Such as hare the tentacula reduced to the form of tubercles. A single species, constituting the genus Discosonta of Lenart/C., belongs to this division, which cannot be regarded as certainly established, the genus referred to having been founded on a specimen preserved in alcohol, which alters materially the forms of sea-anemonies. Ehrenberg asserts that it is his Actinia brcricirrhata, which has very small and numerous tentacula. Ex. Discosoma numniforme.
B. Such Sra-Anemanics as hare simple tentanda. Of these the following are the principal genera 1. JlInyve, Cnvier (Ad iniata, Blaincille), Free A di:1hr having more or less globose bodies inflated at one end, and having at tho other a disk covered by a great number of very short tentacula Clavier placed this genus among the Echinodermata, but the observations of Lesneur and Quoy, who have seen the living animal, pipe* it without a question among the true Act iniathr. As many of the usually fixed 'peck* are capable of swimming and of inflating their auctorial disks, it is by no means sure that such is always the habit of M in ya s ; indeed, wo have observed an allied and uudeseribed animal which inhabits the Mediterranean, swimming at the surface of the sea in winter, but when confined in a glass of water it adhered to the sides in the manner of an A ctinia properly so called.