TO 



SEA-ANEMONES AND CORALS. 



feelers, growing so close that they look to you like 

 fringes, forming a sort of wreath around the top. Very 

 slowly and softly these beautiful fringes creep out from 



the inside of the little animal, 

 where they have lain, drawn in 

 and packed away so snugly that 

 you never suspected they were 

 there ; and then when they are 

 fully spread, they move gently 

 up and down, with a slow, 

 waving motion. 



My wood-cut gives you no 

 idea of their beauty ; you must 

 imagine them light-colored, and 

 soft and delicate as the down 

 cm a feather. Pretty and soft though they are, you 

 will hardly believe that they have attached to them an 

 instrument which is as dangerous and deadly to all the 

 little animals which the Sea-Anemone likes for its food, 

 as the claws of your pussy are to a mouse. Do you 

 know what a lasso is ? It is a long rope which, in some 

 countries, is used for catching cattle. It has a noose 

 at one end, and is carried coiled up in the hand, till 

 the animal comes quite near, and then it is thrown 

 suddenly out ; the men who use it understand how to 

 cast it with such dexterity and force, that the noose 

 slips over the animal's head or feet, and then they have 

 him fast enough. Now, the Sea-Anemone has upon 

 these fringes or tentacles, as I will call them, because 

 that is their true name, numbers of what are called 

 lasso-cells : they are so small that you cannot see them 

 with your naked eye, but each little cell contains a long 



