SEA- ANEMONES. 87 



wound. Mrs. Pratt, in her ' Seaside Chapters/ observes 

 that the touch of the very same Actinia will affect different 

 persons in a different manner. Having placed a specimen 

 in a vessel which she often touched, slie found the tentacles 

 crowding round the finger and producing a very slight sensa- 

 tion. The same specimen being touched by another person 

 communicated a tingling which was felt up the whole arm ! 

 Some persons felt nothing ; others felt as if stung by a nettle. 



Altogether the Anemone must be a formidable tenant of 

 the sea, and is a rather dangerous inhabitant of the tank. 

 Eirmly adhering by its base, it puts out its arms in quest of 

 prey. Nothing, once in contact with an arm, can escape 

 its deadly touch. Small MoUusca, Radiata, and Crustacea 

 are drawn to the central vortex, and swallowed in spite of 

 the most vigorous resistance. Small fishes and crabs are 

 seized and devoured. Creatures larger than the natural 

 extent of the Anemone^s body are pressed down into the 

 same accommodating and extensile carpet-bag. If you have 

 any choice specimens belonging to other tribes, endowed 

 with powers of locomotion likely to bring them into thought- 

 less contact with the foe, do not place it in a tank witli 

 Sea- Anemones. 



Foreigners boil many kinds of Actinice for the table, and 



