160 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



it thus : After irritatinof a Dianthus till it sent out a 

 great many filaments, I dropped a very tiny Annelid 

 among them, and entangled it completely in their 

 meshes. Yet lo ! these filaments, which are said to 

 .possess so powerful a faculty of urtication that even 

 vertebrate animals are killed by them, had no other 

 effect upon a soft Annelid than that of detaining it in 

 their meshes, from which it shortly freed itself, and 

 wriggled away unhurt. Nor was I yet satisfied ; plac- 

 ing a tiny Crustacean, of the shrimp family, among the 

 filaments of another Dian thus, I saw it remain there en- 

 veloped, but apparently quite comfortable, not in the 

 least so desii'ous of escaping as one would expect if 

 it were being " nettled" all over ; and, when the jar 

 lurched, it swam away.* 



I have since repeated this experiment with Ento- 

 mostraca and Annelids, without once detecting the 



table, which contained a couple of fish, a Doris, and a few Polypes, 

 but no Sagartia. On investigation, it turned out that the commotion 

 was produced by a fish {Ophidium) six or seven inches long, in the 

 convulsions of death. In its mouth there was a sliyht strip of Ulva. As 

 the weed dangled from its mouth, I was forcibly reminded of Mr 

 Gosse's dying fish, with its filament of the Actinia dangling from its 

 mouth. Should I have been justified in attributing to the sea-weed 

 the power Mr Gosse attributed to the filament ? Clearly not. In both 

 cases the relation observed was one of coincidence, not of causality. 



* Since the publication of the First Edition, I have learned from 

 Mr Cooper of London, and Mr Broderick of Ilfracombe, that they have 

 observed the tentacles of an Anemone wither up after coming in con- 

 tact with the body of a Dianthus, and causing it to emit its filaments. 

 I think it right to record such contradictions to my own observations, 

 although I cannot reconcile them, nor pretend to unsay what has been 

 said. The subject is worth a rigorous investigation. 



