Plate VIII.
1. Actinia gemmacea.
3. & 4. Actinia mesembrianthemum.
5. Lucernaria auricula.
6. Virgularia mirabilis.
The Actinia gemmacea, it would appear, is a more voracious creature than most of his congeners, for Dr. Johnston, in his splendid work on the British Zoöphytes, describes one of this species that had managed to swallow a shell of Pecten maximus as large as a common saucer, its own natural diameter not exceeding two inches. It managed, however, to distend its elastic form sufficiently to receive the enormous prey; but the shell divided the stomach into two completely separate departments, the lower one being thus perfectly shut off from its usual supplies. To meet this difficulty, the organic economy of the creature adapted itself in a most extraordinary manner; a new mouth was opened below the division, furnished with two rows of new tentacles, and thus the lower portion regained a means of taking in nourishment, the whole creature forming a singular double monster, that, not contented with its one giant mouth, surrounded with its hundred arms to supply its voracious appetite, had actually succeeded in supplying itself with a second, equally furnished with its formidable feeding apparatus.
In [Plate IX.] a very beautifully distinct form of this singular race of animals is very carefully delineated—Actinia anguicoma—which seems to be shaking loose a mass of serpent-like hair, like another Medusa; from which appearance, its specific name anguicoma, signifying snake-haired, has doubtless been given.
The tentacles of the Actinia mesembrianthemum are generally of a beautiful rosy-pink, and the body of a rich warm brown. But of all the species, A. crassicornis—represented in the lower part of [Plate X.]—is perhaps the handsomest, the orifice or mouth being of a delicate straw tone, the tentacles white, variegated with bands of delicate pink, and the body, or stem, a rich orange-brown, thickly sprinkled with tubercles of bright yellow. This fine species sometimes measures five inches across, when the tentacles are fully expanded.
When the Actiniæ are in a state of repose or sleep, the tentacles are entirely drawn in, and the stem or body closes over the orifice, leaving only a slight indent to mark its existence. In this state they might be mistaken for short-stemmed fungi, the pale-bodied species being very much like a half-grown mushroom, if one can imagine it placed close to the ground, without any visible stem.