D A MANUAL 



'' Oh ! I can tell you — it's the prettiest thing I 

 ever saw in all my life — it opens and shuts just like 

 a flower — and it's all over the most be — a — utiful 

 colours 3^ou can possibly imagine." We are of 

 course much indebted to our young-lady friend for 

 her obliging remarks, but cannot help wishing that 

 her enthusiasm had induced her to institute more 

 accurate observations upon the animal in question. 



Our remaining friends all appear either to have 

 "read" or to have "heard" about sea-anemones, 

 but do not seem to have benefited by either pro- 

 cess. One person alludes to them as "interesting 

 proofs of the natural adaptations of means to an 

 end," but does not further explain himself. Another, 

 having puzzled his brains with reading a popular 

 account of the distinctive characters of the vegetable 

 and animal kingdoms, has a vague idea that they 

 are connected in some mysterious way with sea- 

 weeds ; and the last, being of a practical turn of 

 mind, enquires how you can ask him such a foolish 

 question — of course he knows what a sea-anemone 

 is — it's a fish (which, by the way, it is'nt) — but, for 

 his part, he can't see the use of your dabbling and 

 splashing in muddy puddles, cutting holes in j^our 

 shoes, and getting your feet wet, when it's so much 

 more easy and agreeable to walk up and down the 

 promenade, and see one's friends, and hear the band 

 play. As there is plainl}" no chance of our agreeing 

 with this gentleman, we wish him good morning, 



