The sea-anemones are very hardy, and they are wonderfully varied and abundant on our coasts. Some sixty years ago a great naturalist, who loved the seashore and its rock-pools enthusiastically, Mr. Philip Henry Gosse, father of Mr. Edmund Gosse, the distinguished man of letters, described our British sea-anemones, and gave beautiful coloured pictures of them. One of these I have taken for the frontispiece of this volume, and some of the outline figures of marine animals in these chapters are borrowed from a marvelously complete and valuable little book by him--now long out of print--entitled "Marine Zoology." His books--of high scientific value--and his example, made sea-anemones "fashionable." London ladies kept marine aquariums in their drawing-rooms stocked with these beautiful flowers of the sea. They were exhibited in quantity at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park, and it is by no means a creditable thing to our London zoologists that neither these nor other marine creatures are now to be seen there. At a later date public marine aquaria were started with success in many seaside towns,--Brighton, Scarborough, Southport, etc.--and a very fine one was organized in Westminster and another at the Crystal Palace. It is an interesting and important fact, bearing on the psychology of the British people, that most of these charming exhibitions of strange and beautiful creatures from the depths of the sea were very soon neglected and mismanaged by their proprietors; the tanks were emptied or filled with river water, and the halls in which they were placed were re-arranged for the exhibitions of athletes, acrobats, comic singers, and pretty dancers. These exhibitions are often full of human interest and beauty--but I regret the complete disappearance of the fishes and strange submarine animals. I have some hope that before long we may, at any rate in the gardens in the Regent's Park, see really fine marine and fresh-water aquaria established, more beautiful and varied in their contents than those of earlier days. [Illustration: FIG. 6.--British Sea-Anemones. a, Sagartia bellis, the daisy anemone, viewed from above when fully expanded. b, Bunodes crassicornis, half expanded; side view. c, Anthea cereus. The tentacles are pale apple-green in colour, tipped with mauve, and cannot be completely retracted. d, Actinia mesembryanthemum. The disk of tentacles is completely retracted. This is the commonest sea-anemone on our South Coast, and is usually maroon colour, but often is spotted like a strawberry.]