Granny was the affectionate name eventually given to a beadlet sea anemone, Actinia equina, which in 1828 was taken from a rocky shore at North Berwick in Scotland by an amateur naturalist, John Dalyell.

[2] This specimen of an Actinia equina sea anemone was found on the shore at North Berwick in 1828 by the lawyer, antiquarian and naturalist John Graham Dalyell.

[note 1] Eventually in 1848 Dalyell, who by this time had been knighted and had inherited a baronetcy, described and illustrated it, calling it Actinia mesembryanthemum, in his two-volume book Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland, represented from Living Subjects, which concentrated on sessile marine creatures.

It was not understood at the time that beadlet sea anemones can be of female, hermaphrodite or male morphological types, sometimes changing at different stages of their lives, and all states can produce young.

Ultimately, in a rare and brief event that was very difficult to observe, they were ejected individually or en masse out of the parent's internal cavity, in much the same way as for disgorging indigestible food matter.

[35] In 1861 John Harper wrote about her in detail, calling her by the name of Granny, and in 1866 Adam White produced a didactic story for children setting her life alongside events in world history.

[39] Granny was not shown in public while she was in Dalyell's care but in 1859 James M'Bain took the beadlet to an Aberdeen meeting of the British Association and to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh in 1872.

[42] He said: This celebrated specimen is well known in the world of science, as also to a wide circle of non-scientific friends; and a portion of its domestic life has been recorded by several eminent writers on natural history both at home and abroad.

[43] From September 1879 Sadler maintained a visitors’ book for Granny extending over nearly eight years – this had over a thousand signatories including the Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland and “distinguished professors and travellers”.

[46][note 9] Granny died on 4 August 1887 but the news was embargoed until 11 October 1887, "apparently for State reasons", when The Scotsman published a lengthy obituary, "In Memoriam – 'Granny'", saying "while surrounded by several of its offspring [...] 'Granny' succumbed, being known to have lived sixty-seven years".

The 1887 article in The Scotsman claimed she was "the pioneer of the new movement in popular education", obliquely crediting her for influencing the British fashion for aquariums in drawing rooms of the Victorian era.

[60][61][62] He also explained the vital importance of having seaweed or aquatic plants to keep the water aerated and reduce the need for fresh supplies of seawater.

[66] Families who were now able to go on holiday by train could bring back seaweed and sea anemones which were easily caught and were attractive at home in the drawing room.