ACTINIA

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A genus of polypi with very numerous tentacles, which extend, like raj-s, from the circumference of the mouth. They are amongst the most highly organised of the cla , having the alimentary sac distinct from the parietes of the body; feeding on shellfish and other marine animals, which they draw into their mouth with their tentaculae, and in a short time rejecting, through the same aperture, 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 petalled flowers; whence they are called " sea anemones," " sea sunflowers," . {Phil. Trans. Ixiii. p. 361.) [s. 25]