There are multitudes too of a charming little kind, which, on account
of the pure whiteness of the crown of tentacles, is known as the
Snowy.[38] The disk is of the same spotless hue; and the column of
a light drab deepening into pale olive towards the summit. With the
exception of its colours, this species has a very close resemblance
to the Rosy, with which it is generally associated, even as we see it
here. And here is the Orange-disk,[39] one of exceeding loveliness,
which you might fancy a cross-breed between the Rosy and the Snowy,
having the rich brown column of the former, and the white tentacles of
the latter; but that it has a character of its own in the disk being
of the most brilliant orange-red. All these are scattered in the most
abundant profusion, looking like gems sown on the rough rock; or, as
I compared them before, like gorgeous composite flowers, of which you
might easily fancy the little tufts of green and purple _Algæ_ to be
the proper leaves. There are also others, less conspicuous, the Daisy,
the Sandalled, the Cave-dweller, the Translucent,[40] more or less
numerously mingled with the rest, of which I have not space here to
speak, but whose history I have elsewhere written in detail.[41] And
we see here and there, for the most part crowded into groups, another
interesting kind, the Plumose,[42] which differs much in appearance
from its associates, having a taller column much more pellucid, and a
crown of tentacles so short, so numerous and so dense, as to form a
large confused tuft of frills, which cannot be separated into rows.
This kind is always of self-colours, which, however, may be light
olive, fawn-brown, orange, flesh-colour, or pure white. Those which the
tide has left exposed, loll out of their holes and droop; but under the
water they stand erect, with a noble boldness. Each group generally
contains individuals of all sizes, and may be considered as a single
family of several generations, or, to speak more correctly, of several
series of offsets, of different ages. For it is highly characteristic
of this species to increase by spontaneous division. When a large
individual has been a good while adherent to one spot, and at length
chooses to change its quarters, it does so by causing its base to
glide slowly along the surface on which it rests;--the glass side of
the tank, for instance. But it frequently happens that small irregular
fragments of the edge of the base are left behind, as if their adhesion
had been so strong, that the animal found it easier to tear its own
tissues apart than to overcome it. The fragments so left soon contract
become smooth, and spherical or oval in outline; and in the course
of a week or fortnight each may be seen furnished with a margin of
tentacles and a disk; transformed, in fact, into perfect though minute
Anemones. Occasionally a separated piece, more irregularly jagged than
usual, will, in contracting, constringe itself, and form two smaller
fragments, united by an isthmus, which goes on attenuating until a
fine thread-like line only is stretched from one to the other; this at
length yields, the substance of the broken thread is rapidly absorbed
into the respective pieces, which soon become two young Anemones.
All the kinds which we have seen in this locality belong to one great
family, the _Sagartiadæ_, a group which includes nearly one-third of
the seventy species of Anemones and Corals which we have on the British
coast; and certainly the most beautiful and the most known, taking them
one with another. They are distinguished by a remarkable peculiarity;
the skin of the body is pierced with minute holes, capable of being
opened and closed at will, out of which can be forced curious slender
threads, which ordinarily lie coiled up in great profusion in the
interior of the animal. These threads are almost entirely composed of
those extraordinary capsules, called _cnidæ_, or nettling-cells, found
indeed in most of the tissues, but nowhere in such abundance as here,
which eject with amazing force a poisonous filament having the strength
and elasticity of a wire, and furnished with reversed barbs, but of
almost inconceivable tenuity. The filaments, projected by myriads
at the pleasure of the animal, penetrate deeply into the flesh of
other soft-bodied creatures, and cause immediate paralysis and speedy
death.[43]