ACTINIA

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A genus of polypi with very numerous tentacles, which extend, like rays, from the irence of the mouth. They tire amongst the most highly organized of the cla , having the alimenfary sac distinct from the parietes of the body; feeding on shellfish.and other marine animals, which they draw into their mouth with their tentacular, and in a short lime rejecting, ture, the shells and indigestible parts. They are of a soft gelatinous texture, and they a ume various forms when the tentacles are all expanded, having the appearance of full-blown many-pelalled flowers; whence they are called "sea anemones/" '■ sea sunflowers." . (Phil. Tram, lxiii. p. 361.) [s. 26]