142 THE PARASITIC ANEMONE. 



that it was sucked in to the wart from which it had 

 proceeded, the orifice of which was clearly visible. 

 Fixing my attention on some part of the thread near 

 the wart, I saw it rapidly approach, and at length 

 disappear within its cavity, and the same process went 

 on constantly, and with all the projected threads 

 together, until all were retracted. 



These threads have, I feel assured, no direct con- 

 nexion with the generative function ; they are weapons 

 of defence, and very effective ones. The fatal effects 

 produced by their adhesive contact upon a little fish I 

 have already described {vide ante, p. 108). Their power 

 of adhesion is remarkable, and must have been felt by 

 every one who has handled the species with the fingers ; 

 they cling around the flesh with the most annoying 

 tenacity, so that it is no easy matter to cleanse one's 

 hand of them. In what resides this adhesive power ? 

 Doubtless in the barbed threads which are sheathed 

 in innumerable myriads in every filament. The force 

 with which these javelins are projected, their elastic 

 strength, and their excessive tenuity, enable them to 

 penetrate animal tissues, even of apparently dense 

 texture, and their barbed bristles enable them to 

 maintain a firm hold. On this matter I beg my 

 reader's reference to the note on the filaments of 

 Adamsia, in p. 136. 



Under the compressorium the thread suddenly 

 cracks, with a start and a crepitation distinctly audi- 

 ble ; a curious circumstance, which seems to indicate a 

 crustaceous or siliceous structure somewhere. I think 

 it cannot be the walls of the filament itself, but the 

 capsules, that crack, minute as they are. The filament 



