Anemone

The Natural History Museum in London owns treasures that simply take your breath away. Delicate, anatomically accurate and beautifully crafted glass models of anemones are so realistic they look like the real thing crystallised from the sea. They were made by father and son glass blowers called Blaschka in the 19th century in what is now the Czech Republic. Scientists could now study the internal structures of these delicate animals in the days when it was difficult to keep live specimens. Sadly, when the Blaschkas passed away they took their secrets of glass blowing with them, but they left us objects of pure wonder. These models allowed ordinary people too to see the wonders beneath the sea. The glass models and the beautiful paintings of anemones in books by people like Philip Henry Gosse and Thomas Alan Stephenson made the once hidden realm of the sea accessible to all. Beach combing became more and more popular with strawberry, beadlet and snakes-locks being collected in their thousands for home aquaria. The Victorian craze which Gosse encouraged (he called them "glimpses of the wonderful") put pressure on some places where anemones grow and notable declines were recorded. Today the collection of anemones for aquaria is devastating places like the Philippines, especially since the Hollywood blockbuster Finding Nemo was released. Bizarrely the complexity of their nerves means they are more closely related to humans than to flies and worms. Some species are as close to immortal as you can get. Cut them in half and you get two, cut off the mouth and it will grow a new one. They seem to go on and on, leading some scientists to use them in the search for eternal youth. Sea anemones are flowers of the sea, they inspire whimsy and fancy, poetry and art.