THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



balanced with the nicest poise on that dactylic petal. Ah ! a voracious 

 and unmannerly little bummer of a minnow sees the delicious morsel, 

 and makes a rapid dash to snatch it from my pet. " Good ! good ! 

 Well done, my bonnie ! " I did not see the slightest motion of that 

 indignant flower-creature ; yet assuredly there was a movement, and 

 an efiective one, too: for the zoophyte had shot one of its invisible 

 shafts ; and the ichthyic thief dashes off like one frantic with pain. 

 Is he hurt ? Likely. His is an urticated experience. He is stung in 

 the snout ! See how he seems to shake his nose ! He fairly seems to 

 sneeze again, and actually conducts himself much like a puppy that, 

 uninvited, has put his nose into a bowl of hot soup. Ah, ha ! He is 

 rubbing his fishy proboscis against a frond of sea-lettuce. Perhaps 

 the salad may cool his burning pain. 



Mr. Fish soon recovers his equanimity of mind ; and it is observ- 

 able that his deference to Mrs. Actinia since that affair has been of a 

 decidedly distant character. 



But we return to mention certain organs attached to the free edges 

 of the mesentery-walls, those perpendicular septse, or membranous 

 partitions, which we have taken some pains to describe. Says Nichol- 

 son : " Along the free margins of the mesenteries there also occur 

 certain singular convoluted cords, charged with thread-cells, and 

 termed ' craspeda,' the function of which is not yet understood. It 



Fig. 4. METBiDnrM Marginatum. Fringed Actinia (ea^anded). 



is believed, however, that the apertures, termed ' cinclides,' in the 

 column-walls of some of the Actinidoe, are for the emission of the 

 craspeda." Now, some observers say that they have seen these urti- 

 cating phenomena take place from the side of the column of an 

 actinia. Is it not, then, very likely that herein is the function of the 

 craspeda ? These " cinclides," or openings in the walls of the living 

 column, are the portholes of the little tower, whence the "craspida"- 

 like archers launch their invisible shafts. 



That is an enviable experience when one is favored with the dis- 



