A yard or two below the surface the eye is caught by a great oyster
projecting from the vertical wall. It is a strange situation for
an oyster to be in, but it shows how the infant young, in their
free-swimming form, so different from their ultimate condition, may be
carried by the aid of their own cilia, and the sea-currents, into the
most improbable situations, and may there find circumstances congenial
for permanent settlement.[34] Perhaps, however, its brown and rough
shell would scarcely have attracted our notice, but for the rider that
sits upon it. A specimen of the Dead-man’s finger,[35] of noble
dimensions, has selected this shell as the seat of its dominion; and
we can discern the three or four great lobes of which it consists
all surrounded by the gauzy cloud that tells of the thousands of
translucent polyps projected from every part of its periphery. Fine as
is that specimen, however, there are scores of others, many of which
are of equal dimensions, and more easily accessible. By the aid of
the hammer and cold-chisel, we may easily secure a specimen without
harming it, after searching a while to select one which is seated on
some projection of the rock that can be struck off. Thus removed,
and at once transferred to one of our collecting jars, the curious
compound animal will in captivity display its beauties, though, it must
be confessed, it is often rather bashful before company. The lobes
into which the mass is divided are sufficiently like stumpy fingers
to have given it a popular designation, while their dull white hue
has suggested that the fingers are those of a corpse. The animal is
sometimes, however, called Cows’ paps, and sometimes Mermaids’ gloves;
but I think this latter is a book name.
When we examine it in the aquarium, after it has recovered its
equanimity disturbed by the rude shocks of the hammer battering about
its castle, we see that the lobes are greatly swollen and sub-pellucid,
from the imbibition of water into the canals with which its whole
substance is penetrated. When out of water the surface was studded with
shallow pits, as if the poor thing had at some period of its history
been afflicted with the small-pox. Now, however, these pittings reveal
their true character; for each has protruded itself in the form of a
long but slender polyp, of exquisite translucency and perfect symmetry.
It resembles a tubular flower with eight narrow pointed petals, which
arch outward like those of a campanula or tulip. Each petal carries on
its edges a row of very slender transparent filaments, arranged like
the teeth of a comb, which also arch downward, and greatly augment the
beauty of the flower-like polyp.
Structurally, this polyp is closely allied to the common forms of the
Sea Anemones; the most obvious peculiarity being, that a multitude are
combined into one mass, with a common life animating the whole. The
fleshy mass is of a spongy texture, full of branching water-canals, and
containing a multitude of calcareous spicula of characteristic forms.
They resemble gnarled branches of oak, with the branchlets broken off,
leaving ragged ends. The skin of the polyps contains, at certain fixed
spots, groups of similar spicula, but much more minute. The microscope
is necessary to discern these, as well as some other details of the
organization of this very interesting creature.
The technical character by which this animal with its allies
is distinguished from the proper Anemones, is that its plan of
organization is fashioned on the number _eight_, whereas the true
Anemones have _six_, as their characteristic number. Thus, however
numerous the tentacles of an anemone may be,--and in the case of the
Daisy or the Plumose, they often amount to several hundreds,--the young
animal began with six, and the increase is normally a multiplication
of six, though accidental irregularities do occur. On the other hand,
the tentacles of the Alcyonium are permanently eight, as are the
vertical partitions of the interior of the body; and by consequence,
the chambers into which those membranous partitions divide it.
But we must not allow the interest attaching to these forms to divert
our attention from the Anemones themselves. All the species which we
saw on the rock above the water, are here below it, and all displaying
their beauties in an incomparably more charming fashion. We can compare
the whole submerged wall to nothing else than a parterre of most
brilliant flowers, taken bodily and set on end. The eye is bewildered
with their number and variety, and knows not which to look at first.
Here are the Rosy Anemones,[36] with a firm fleshy column of rich
sienna-brown, paler towards the base, and with the upper part studded
with indistinct spots, marking the situation of certain organs which
have an adhesive power. The disk is of a pale neutral tint, with a
crimson mouth in the centre, and a circumference of crowded tentacles
of the most lovely rose-purple, the rich hue of that lovely flower that
bears the name of General Jacqueminot. In those specimens that are most
widely opened, this tentacular fringe forms a blossom whose petals
overhang the concealed column, expanding to the width of an inch or
more; but there are others in which the expansion is less complete in
different degrees, and these all give distinct phases of loveliness. We
find a few among the rest, which, with the characteristically-coloured
tentacles, have the column and the disk of a creamy white; and one in
which the disk is of a brilliant orange, inclining to scarlet. Most
lovely little creatures are they all.