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The heroines undertook the task; Thro' lanes unknown, o'er stiles they ventured, Rapped at the door, nor stayed to ask, But bounce into the parlour entered. Gray's Long Story. 'No carmine? Nor scarlet lake in powder? 'Could procure some, my Lord. 'Thank you, the actinia would not live. I must take what I can find. A lump of gamboge
While I looked, thinking only of the curve of Helen's lips and the dancing light in her eyes, and the glowing colour of her soft flesh, Prof. Darmstetter's thin, high-pitched voice grated almost at my ear. "T'at is Actinia sea anemone." "I come from the West; I have never seen the sea forms living," I answered with an effort, fearing that he meant to show me about the laboratory.
The mode of development of these animals tells us something of the relative inferiority and superiority of the single ones and of those that grow in communities. When the little Polyp Coral, the Astraean or Madrepore, for instance, is born from the egg, it is as free as the Actinia, which remains free all its life.
Its fixed, staring eye, its snake-like stealthiness, bid you be on your guard. Sometimes it rises behind that bushy Carrageen, and with high uplifted head peers over at me in such a way that I am half afraid; it is so like the old pictures of Satan tempting Eve. Would you like to see an Actinia eat? I will drop a bit of raw oyster upon its outspread disk.
Several kinds of very large Actinia inhabit the rocks: all that we examined belonged to the species which is externally provided with rows of teats. A Velella also was caught in the open bay: this is the first which has been observed in so high a latitude.
On the afternoon following the expedition to Bickleypool, Louis was seated, with an earthenware pan before him, coaxing an actinia with raw beef to expand her blossom, to be copied for Miss Faithfull. Another bowl stood near, containing some feathery serpulas; and the weeds were heaped on the locker of the window behind him, and on the back of the chair which supported his lame foot.
Many marine animals seem to have this power of stinging: besides the Portuguese man-of-war, many jelly-fish, and the Aplysia or sea-slug of the Cape de Verd Islands, it is stated in the "Voyage of the Astrolabe" that an Actinia or sea-anemone, as well as a flexible coralline allied to Sertularia, both possess this means of offence or defence.
There are many varieties, some of which are very delicate, as the Actinia anguicoma, or Snaky-locked Anemone, and the pink and brown Actinia bellis, which so resembles a daisy. Others, as the Actinia parasitica, are obtainable only by deep-sea dredging; "and, as its name implies, it usually inhabits the shell of some defunct mollusk.
The Actinia mesembryanthemum is the common smooth anemone, abounding on the coast, and often to be found attached to stones on the beach. "When closed," says Mr. Hibbert, "it has much resemblance to a ripe strawberry, being of a deep chocolate color, dotted with small yellow spots.
And more curious still, in the same shell we usually find a pretty crab, who acts as porter to the anemone. The Actinia gemmacea, or Gemmed Anemone, the Actinia crassicornis, and the Plumose Anemone are all beautiful, but tender varieties. The Anemones require but little care; they do not generally need feeding, though the Daisy and Plumose Anemone greedily take minced mutton, or oyster.
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