Sometimes an anemone will detach itself from the rock, and drag itself along, but very slowly, by means of its tentacles, sometimes inverting its body and walking on its head, as it were, and though one may never have the opportunity of witnessing this manœuvre on the shore, we have found it far from an uncommon occurrence in the aquarium.
The natural food of anemones consists of small crustaceans, such as shrimps, and crabs, molluscs, small fishes, and in fact almost every kind of animal diet, and there need never be any difficulty in finding suitable viands for species kept in captivity. It is really astonishing to see what large morsels they can dispose of with the assistance of their extensile mouths and stomachs. It is not even necessary, indeed, that the morsel be so small as to be entirely enclosed by the walls of its digestive cavity, for the anemone will digest one portion while the other remains projecting beyond its mouth. Further, it will even attack bodies which it cannot swallow at all, by protruding its stomach so as to partially envelope them, and then digesting the portion enclosed. Indigestible portions of its food, such as the shells of small molluscs, are ejected through the mouth after the process of digestion has been completed.
We have already referred to the reproduction of sea anemones by means of eggs, but it is interesting to note that they may also increase by a division of the body into two or more parts, and that this division may be either natural or artificial.
If an anemone be cut into halves longitudinally, each half will develop into a complete animal. If cut transversely, the upper portion will almost always develop a new suctorial disc, and produce a new individual complete in every respect; and it has been stated that the basal portion of the divided animal will also, occasionally, produce a new disc and tentacles.
The natural division of the anemone has frequently been spoken of as by no means an uncommon occurrence, but, as far as our experience of captive anemones go, this mode of multiplication does not seem to take place except as the result of some mechanical force applied, or as a means by which the animal may relieve itself of a solid body that it is unable to eject. Thus, on one occasion, when a stone had slipped so that its narrow edge rested across the middle of the disc of a large Mesembryanthemum, the animal, apparently unable to free itself from the burden, simply withdrew its tentacles and awaited results. In a few days two individuals were to be seen, one on either side of the stone, both undoubtedly produced as the result of the pressure applied. This instance seems to be exactly akin to artificial division, for it is far more likely that the animal was severed by the simple pressure of the stone than that it divided itself to be relieved of its burden.
On another occasion an anemone that had almost entirely surrounded a mussel on which it had been feeding, gradually released itself of the shell by a longitudinal division of its body; but here, again, it is probable that the fission was the result of pressure applied rather than of any power on the part of the animal.
A few of the British sea anemones are shown on Plates [II.] and [III.], and although the coloured illustrations will probably suffice for purposes of identification, yet a short description of each one represented may be acceptable.
The most common and most widely distributed species is undoubtedly the familiar Beadlet (Actinia mesembryanthemum—Plate II., figs. 1, 2, 3), which is to be found on every bit of rocky coast around the British Isles, and even on some stony beaches where there are no standing rocks between the tide-marks.
The colour of this species is exceedingly variable, but the most abundant variety is of a liver-brown colour, with crimson disc and tentacles, brilliant blue spots round the margin of the disc, and a line of bright blue around the base. In others the prevailing colour is deep crimson, orange, yellowish brown, or green. Fig. 1 represents a variety commonly known as the Strawberry Beadlet (Fragacea), which is distinguished by its superior size, and in which the dark-red ground is often conspicuously spotted with green.
Two members of the same genus are also shown on Plate [III]. One of these—A. glauca (fig. 3)—is of a bluish-green colour; while the other—A. chiococca (fig. 4)—is bright scarlet, with deep crimson disc and white spots round the disc.