SEA-ANEMONES AND CORALS. II 



hollow thread coiled up in a spiral within it. They 

 have the power of flinging this thread suddenly out, 

 when there is any little shrimp or shell swimming about 

 in the water which they fancy for a meal, and in an 

 instant he finds himself entangled in 

 their tiny cords, like a fly in a spider's 

 web. Little shrimps swimming near 

 them, full of activity, are suddenly 

 struck dead at the mere contact with 

 these poisonous whips, and may be 

 seen hanging lifeless on the feelers. 

 Here is the figure of a magnified lasso- 

 cell, with the coil partly turned out. It 

 is a sort of bag, as you see, within 

 which the thread is wound up in a 

 spiral, and from which it can be thrown 

 out in an instant at the will of the ani- 

 mal. These cells are very numerous, 

 and so small that only a very power- 

 ful microscope will reveal them to the 

 sight. No> 4 ' 



When the prey is caught in this way, the tentacles 

 close upon it and pass it into the mouth ; but, in order 

 that you may understand this, I must tell you something 

 about the mouth, and about the inside of our little Sea- 

 Anemone. If we look down upon him from above 

 (No. 5), we shall see in the centre of the fringes a hole ; 

 that hole is the mouth which opens into a kind of sac 

 hanging below it, inside the animal. This sac is its 

 stomach, into which all the food passes, and where it is 

 digested. Making a cut across our little friend, so as to 

 get a glimpse of his internal arrangement, we see that this 



