The first tenants should be the hardy varieties of the Sea-Anemones, or Actiniae,which are Polyps, of the class Radiata.

These may be placed temporarily in jars; though plants, mollusks, Crustacea and Actiniae may be kept and transmitted long distances packed in layers of moist sea-weed.

The lowest in structure among the Polyps are not Corals, but the single, soft-bodied Actiniae.

Now in these lowest Polyps, the Actiniae, the tentacles increase with age indefinitely, never ceasing to grow while life lasts, new chambers being constantly added to correspond with them, till it becomes impossible to count their numbers.

In these, also, the tentacles multiply throughout life, though they are usually not so numerous as in the Actiniae.

But a new feature is added to the complication of their structure, as compared with Actiniae, in the transverse beams which connect their vertical partitions, though they do not stretch across the animal so as to form perfect floors, as in some of the higher Polyps.

Another remarkable feature among the Madrepores consists in the prominence of one of the Polyps on the summit of the branches, showing a kind of subordination of the whole community to these larger individuals, and thus sustaining the view expressed above, that the combination of many individuals into a connected community is among Polyps a character of superiority when contrasted with the isolation of the Actiniae;.

Actiniae: indefinite multiplication of tentacles; soft bodies and no transverse beams.

Permian, / Carboniferous, \ Devonian, } Fungidae Silurian, / With regard to the geological position of the Actiniae we can say nothing, because, if their soft, gelatinous bodies have left any impressions in the rocks, none such have ever been found; but their absence is no proof that they did not exist, since it is exceedingly improbable that animals destitute of any hard parts could be preserved.

It is true that we do not find the Actiniae in the Reef any more than in the crust of the earth, for the absence of hard parts in their bodies makes them quite unfit to serve as Reef-Builders.

She bore her plumy crown so grandly, you would have said she was indeed the queen of Actiniae.