80 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



wide enough, are the tips of delicately- coloured petals, which, 

 on examination, are found to be rounded, cylindrical, and 

 transparent. These continue to be more and more fully 

 seen, until they separate so as to disclose a small inner sur- 

 face in the centre ; and we find that this inner surface is 

 part of a rounded disc, and that the petals are arranged 

 in several rows so as to fringe the outer edge of the disc. 

 Here we have the flower fully expanded ; and on looking at 

 the now visible edge of the outer coating, we find that it 

 is studded, behind the petals, with a row of bright rounded 

 tubercles, like blue beads. The central hole is of course a 

 mouth, leading to a central stomach ; the cylindrical petals 

 are tentacula, or arms, by which prey is seized ; and the 

 exact use of the blue beads, which exist only in the smooth 

 anemone y is not yet fully ascertained. 



Now if, with this flower before him, with its petals out, 

 the observer will put a small water-insect, or piece of meat, 

 within reach of one or two of the outer tentacles, he will see 

 that they adhere to it as it were by a kind of electric touch ; 

 and there is an agitation among a few tentacles in its imme- 

 diate vicinity, which bend towards the object and try to 

 reach it, in support of those which first had hold of it. Mean- 

 while a firmer purchase is obtained by those tentacles which 



