RADIATES.
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co.
1871.
A L E X A N D E R A G A S S I Z,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
for the District of Massachusetts.
Welch, Bigelow, and Company,
Cambridge.
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORS TO
WHOSE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION HAVE BEEN THE MAIN
GUIDE IN ITS PREPARATION.
This volume is published with the hope of supplying a want often expressed for some seaside book of a popular character, describing the marine animals common to our shores. There are many English books of this kind; but they relate chiefly to the animals of Great Britain, and can only have a general bearing on those of our own coast, which are for the most part specifically different from their European relatives. While keeping this object in view, an attempt has also been made to present the facts in such a connection, with reference to principles of science and to classification, as will give it in some sort the character of a manual of Natural History, in the hope of making it useful not only to the general reader, but also to teachers and to persons desirous of obtaining a more intimate knowledge of the subjects discussed in it. With this purpose, although nearly all the illustrations are taken from among the most common inhabitants of our bay, a few have been added from other localities in order to fill out this little sketch of Radiates, and render it, as far as is possible within such limits, a complete picture of the type.
A few words of explanation are necessary with reference to the joint authorship of the book. The drawings and the investigations, where they are not referred to other observers, have been made by Mr. A. Agassiz, the illustrations having been taken, with very few exceptions, from nature, in order to represent the animals, as far as possible, in their natural attitudes; and the text has been written by Mrs. L. Agassiz, with the assistance of Mr. A. Agassiz's notes and explanations.
Cambridge, May, 1865.
This second edition is a mere reprint of the first. A few mistakes accidentally overlooked have been corrected; an explanation of the abbreviations of the names of writers used after the scientific names has been added, as well as a list of the wood-cuts. The changes which have taken place in the opinions of scientific men with regard to the distribution of animal life in the ocean have been duly noticed in their appropriate place, but no attempt has been made to incorporate more important additions which the progress of our knowledge of Radiates may require hereafter.
Cambridge, January, 1871.
Unless otherwise specified, the illustrations are drawn from nature by Alex. Agassiz.
Fig. Page 1. Transverse section of an Actinia (Agassiz) 5 2, 3, 4. Actinia in different degrees of expansion (Agassiz) 8 5. Metridium marginatum fully expanded 8 6. Vertical section of an Actinia 10 7. View from above of an expanded Actinia 11 8, 9. Young Actiniæ 11 10. Rhodactinia Davisii 13 11. Arachnactis brachiolata 14 12. Young Arachnactis 14 13. Young Arachnactis showing the mouth 14 14. Bicidium parasiticum 15 15. Halcampa albida 16 16. Colony of Astrangia Danæ 17 17. Magnified individuals of Astrangia 17 18. Single individual of Astrangia 18 19. Lasso-cell of Astrangia 18 20. Limestone pit of Astrangia 19 21. Single individual of Halcyonium carneum 19 22. Halcyonium community 20 23. Expanded individual of Halcyonium 20 24. Branch of Millepora alcicornis (Agassiz) 22 25. Expanded animals of Millepora (Agassiz) 22