OF SEA- ANEMONES. 33 



was excusable perhaps, but not judicious. It cer- 

 tainly is an anemone, that soft, brown, jelly-like mass 

 with a circle of turquoises round its mouth, and a 

 blue stripe encompassing its base. It is Actinia 

 me semhryanthemiim, the " common" sea-anemone, and 

 we shall find many varieties of it before we proceed 

 much further. It sticks to the surface of smooth 

 stones, sometimes in running water, and frequently 

 where it will be high and dry till the tide returns : 

 it is found in exposed situations at the highest level 

 of all its brethren, and appears to rejoice in as great 

 an amount of the "vital air" as it can manage to 

 procure. Here is another variety of the same kind, 

 a dull olive-green, with similar blue spots, which, 

 however, are not very visible, being concealed by its 

 expanded arms or tentacles. And here is "the 

 strawberry," whose body is mottled with red and 

 green, after the fashion of that pleasant fruit. 



These three kinds are easily removed, without 

 the assistance of chisel, hammer, or any other violent 

 persuasion ; we have simply to insert the ivory knife 

 between their bases and the rock, and a very little 

 exertion will deposit them in the depths of the largest 

 of our glass bottles. 



Another five minutes' scramble over rock and 

 weed, and we come to the "half- tide" level, where, 

 if we are fortunate, we ought to find two or three 

 varieties of another species. Here, you see, the 

 rocks are flat and interspersed with tracts of sand, 



