THE CAVE-DWELLING ANEMONE. 
103 
teristic marks of troglodytes^ however, on disk and tentacles. 
Column marked with longitudinal green bands on a pellucid 
olive groimd. Tentacles very short and conical, pellucid, 
with three transverse white bars, and three longitudinal 
streaks of fine grass-green, reaching from the middle to the 
tip ; one frontal, broad, the others lateral, nanower. Disk 
pellucid olive, with a white lip. This variety I enumerate 
as Prasmopicta. 
All the varieties of this species are hardy in confinement, 
and accommodate themselves readily to almost any kind 
of bottom. Many observations (some of which have been 
already mentioned) concur in showing its tenacity of life 
under circumstances, such as long imprisonment in a box, 
foul water, &c., that would prove fatal to other species. It 
requires attention, however, in the aquarium, to preserve 
it in condition. The more beautiful varieties, at least, 
speedily degenerate both in size and colour, if they be not 
frequently and regularly fed. They possess a healthy 
appetite, and will greedily devour fragments of raw fish or 
flesh, or of univalve or bivalve mollusca. Perhaps the best 
food for all Anemones, and one that can generally be com- 
manded, is the uncooked flesh of the oyster or the mussel. 
It should be cut into small pieces, and guided gently to the 
disk or tentacles of the Anemone, when fully expanded. If 
the animal shrink from the food, and contract; or if it be 
allowed to lie on the disk ungrasped, it will be of little use 
to allow it to remain: remove the fi’agment, and wait a 
hungrier moment. 
If the food be gradually sucked in, its remains will be 
disgorged in the course of a period varying from a few 
hours to several days. Often it will appear little changed ; 
but it has performed its part, and must be carefully removed, 
or its decomposition will be likely to spoil the water, and 
kill, or at least render sickly, the living tenants. The frag- 
