SEA- ANEMONES. 113 



AidJiecis tentacles, whose dead weight, apparently without 

 any voluntary resistauce, was sufficient to arrest any fur- 

 ther progress of the rising shreds. Thus, suspended in mid- 

 water, were the globules of air holding up the loops of con- 

 ferva, and these loops keeping the tentacles of the Anthea 

 suspended in an unnatural position above the body, — a 

 position very similar to that of the arm of a rider passed 

 through one of the looped bands hanging by the side of 

 a carriage window. The least efPort, or contraction of the 

 limb, would either have broken the loop, or have drawn it 

 down, and released the air-globules which suspended it ; but 

 no, our Anthea preferred " taking it easy,^' and, although 

 his tentacles were awkwardly bent, he seemed inclined to 

 rest them as they were. Well, I \^'atched a little while 

 longer then, but no movement. Leaving the tank for a 

 while I returned after two or three hours. There were the 

 same tentacles, of the same Anthea, hanging by the same 

 threads, in the same position. Well, surely when the Zoo- 

 phyte shuts up for the night, he will burst his bonds. 

 Oh no, I forgot ! The Anthea must be supposed never to 

 shut up, for Jolinston says, '' tentacula . . . incapable of 

 being retracted within the body." On returning the next 

 morning, there were still, in the same relations to each 



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