THE SCARLET-FRINGED ANEMONE. 
4o 
if it did not possess any particular function. It had the 
same colour as the others ; but was not, like them, wholly 
withdrawn when the animal was closed. In fact, it 
appeared as if rather in the way, and not easily disposed 
of by its possessor. After about a week [the phenomenon] 
disappeared, and I have seen nothing of the lengthened 
arms since, in either of the specimens that had had 
them.” 
Those curious missile filaments which I have named 
acontia,'^ are discharged by this species in great profusion. 
They are, as usual, white, but appear to possess the power 
of discharging a pigment. A large specimen, which I had 
irritated by forcibly detaching it (in the usual way) from 
a stone, diffused a copious mucus. Acontia were also 
abundantly protruded, and spread to double the diameter 
of the body on all sides, on the bottom of a saucer in 
which I had placed it. After a while the whole of this 
mucus over the same area was of a delicate hut decided 
roseate hue^ as seen on the white china. The acontia are 
very densely filled with cnidce, of two kinds, chambered and 
unchambered. The former are -g-Jirth of an inch in length, 
linear-ovate, of a clear pale yellow hue, highly refractile, 
with a long parallel-sided chamber, extending through 
three- fourths of the cnida. It discharges a wire (ecthorceum) 
about one and a half times its own length, furnished for 
the distal two-thirds with a screw of two (or three) spiral 
bands, closely set, and forming an angle with the axis of 
30° : the bands are clothed with reverted barbs. The 
unchambered cnidse are -g^th of an inch long, of a similar 
shape, shooting a wire to eight times its own length, which 
is attenuated to a fine point, and is furnished with a single 
screw-band, unbarbed. 
When out of water, miniata has the habit of protruding 
* See the General Introduction, for a full description of these organs. 
