158 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



are mucli less abundant than in parts not manifesting 

 the power : the conckision, therefore, presses on us 

 that the power does not depend upon these capsules. 



And this conclusion is strengthened every step we 

 take. Thus the Anthea is of all Anemones the most 

 powerfully m^ticating ; yet, if we compare its capsules 

 with those of other Anemones, we find them greatly 

 inferior in quantity to those of the Daisy and Dian- 

 thus, and much inferior in size to those of Crassicornis, 

 as well as less easily made to uncoil their threads. It 

 has not been remarked, that whereas according to 

 theory, the thread should dart out almost instantane- 

 ously on the slightest pressm^e ; in point of fact it 

 frequently cannot be pressed out at all, even when the 

 whole force of the finger is exerted on the two pieces 

 of glass between which it lies. From the very capri- 

 cious way in which the threads dart out while under 

 the microscope, and not under pressure, and from the 

 frequent impossibility of pressing them out, I suspect 

 that pressure has really nothing normally to do with 

 the ejection of the thread. 



Hitherto we have merely considered facts of Obser- 

 vation ; we shall now see them confirmed by Experi- 

 ment. Mr Gosse proposes to establish a new genus, 

 named Sagartia, on this purely hypothetical function ; 

 including in it all those Anemones which, like the 

 Daisy and Dianthus, possess an abundance of peculiar 

 white filaments, visible to the naked eye, which are 

 protruded from the pores of the body and the mouth, 

 when the animal is roughly handled. These filaments 



