14 



HARD WICK E*S SCIENCE. GOSSIP. 



appearance. The Crass had evidently cliued, just 

 before his capture, on a crab quite as large in cir- 

 cumference as half a crown ; for, at the moment I 

 appeared, he was disgorging the empty shell, and he 

 had not been treated to Crustacea by us. Minced 

 beef, given "rare," as they say iu New York, and an 

 oyster — out of the shell, of course — are the articles 

 of diet we have given his crass-ship. I fear he will 

 die of repletion, for my boy has an idea that he 

 requires constant feeding. Fortunately, the creature 

 has a first-rate digestion. 



The other Crass inhabits a smaller mansion, and 

 is a trifle less voracious. I do not like to put either of 

 them in a new aquarium which I have just purchased 

 of Mr. Ed wards, of Menai Bridge, the gentleman who 

 supplied Mr. Alford Lloyd with all those— or at any 

 rate a great many of them — nice slate tanks he used 

 to have at his establishment in Town, a few years 

 ago ; for Crass are rather uncertain zoophytes, and, 

 if they die, will poison a whole aquarium. Besides 

 this, they are almost as dangerous when living : 

 they help themselves to any neighbour that comes 

 within reach of their long arms {tentacula). 



I have a great aversion to feed them with living 

 animals. I do not like to see one creature prey 

 upon another, although I know it is in accordance 

 with the universal law of Nature ; so I will not let 

 my boy give his pets small crabs and shrimps. This 

 will probably be called "very silly," and I shall 

 perhaps be asked if I never eat crabs and shrimps 

 myself? Yes, I do; but then they are boiled, and I can 

 but hope the process is less painful than being buried 

 alive in the interior of a Crass ; besides, I do not 

 superintend the boiling, aud 1 should be expected 

 to witness the entombment, or have to listen to 

 such remarks as the following : — " There, now his 

 claws are gone," or, " Half of him is out of sight : 

 how he does kick ! " 



Crass are more sensitive than the other kinds of 

 sea anemones, and therefore, when the stone on 

 which they have fixed themselves is too large to 

 carry away, especial care must be taken in detaching 

 them, as an injury to the base is fatal. 



Has it been really found out how long these living 

 flowers can.live ? I once read an account of a Crass 

 that had existed for thirty-five years. If, as it is 

 said, much locomotion shortens life, Crasses ought 

 to be perfectly patriarchal. They travel by a very 

 slow train : only run at the rate of four inches in 

 eight hours. They move a portion of their base, 

 and then drag the other part quietly after it. 

 Were it not for the strong expanding and also 

 prehensile power of their tentacles, they would run 

 great risk of fasting, since they cannot change 

 their hunting-ground often or rapidly. " My Crass " 

 took a pretty tight grasp of the paper-knife I touched 

 him with to-day. I could feel it, just as one does 

 the force of a loadstone when it attracts an object 

 held in the hand. 



" My Crasses" have names. We have called them 

 Miss S. and Mrs. M. W. ; for, although I write of 

 them as if they belonged to the masculine gender, 

 they are named after two members of the feminine, 

 whom we fancy they resemble. Strictly speaking, I 

 imagine they are neither, as their young are pro- 

 duced like flower-buds; only, flower-buds, when 

 expanded, wither and fall off to die : these sea 

 flower-buds, when their form is perfected, fall off, 

 or out, to live, and grow, on their own base. Has it 

 ever struck you how some animals resemble human 

 beings? ( [ ought to have written human beings first). 

 One of these Crasses, when in a state of sulk, sticks 

 out two singular earlike appendages, forcibly calling 

 to mind the way in which Miss S. used to wear her 

 hair, drawn up iu two horns, one on each side of her 

 head. The other Crass has a large, wide expause 

 of face, with wouderfully long, light-hued tentacles ; 

 and each time I look at the animal since my naughty 

 " Puck " gave it "a local habitation and a name," I 

 fancy I see Mrs. M. AY., her light locks streaming 

 in the wind, as she, with crasslike celerity of motion, 

 made her way up Cintra Hill. 



The colours of some the sea anemones are very 

 brilliant when seen in strong sunlight, and their 

 resemblance to flowers, such as asters, daisies, aud 

 marigolds, perfectly startling. They may well be 

 called " the sensitive plants of the sea." 



I am busy making a collection of different polypes, 

 or zoophytes, iu readiness for the time when my 

 aquarium will be fit to receive them. There are a 

 great many specimens ou this coast, and I trust to 

 find others at Llandudno during the holidays, when 

 I trust I shall have something of greater interest to 

 gossip about than "My Crass." 



I am told that the tentacles are charged with a 

 poisonous fluid, which kills the prey directly it is 

 seized. Judging from the stinging, strange sensa- 

 tion in my fingers after touching these said "feelers," 

 I half imagine them charged with electricity. 



Beaumaris. Helen E. Watney. 



P.S.— Since writing the above, one of " My Crass" 

 has devoured a good-sized purple-tipped sea-urchin, 

 which was put by mistake into his house. I hope 

 the species will disagree with him. 



SECTIONS OE BONE, TEETH, &c. 



DOUBTLESS many of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip have tried, with more or less success 

 or failure, the methods described in the manuals for 

 making sections of bone, &c. ; and many have 

 either been deterred from studying such structures 

 through the time involved in making even respect- 

 able slides, or felt, where they had succeeded, that 

 their productions would not compare with the 

 admirable sections of our professional mounters. 

 Again, in order that the lacuna and car.aliculi 



