SEA-ANEMONES : THEIR WEAPONS. 415 



lens, inanj acontia ])rotruded from the clnclidcs^ and 

 many more of the hitter widely open. The acontia., 

 in some cases, did not so accurately till the orifice but 

 that a line of bright liyht (or of darkness, according as 

 the sun was exactly opposite or not) was seen partially 

 bordering the issue of the thread, while the thickened 

 I'ini of the cinclis surrounded all. 



The appearance of the orifices whence the acontia 

 issued Avas that of a tubercle or wart, and the same 

 appearance I have repeatedly nuirked in examples 

 observed on the stage of the microscope ; namely, that 

 of a perforate pimple, or short columnar tube. This 

 was clearly manifest wlien the animal, slowly swaying 

 to and fro, brought the sides of the cinclis into partial 

 perspective. 



On another occasion I witnessed the actual issue 

 of the acontia from the cinclides. I was watching, 

 under a low power of the microscope, a specimen of a 

 S. nivea, while, by touching its body rudely, I pro- 

 voked it to emit its missile filaments. Presently they 

 bui'st out Avith foi'ce, not all at once, but some liere 

 and there, then more, and yet more, on the repeated 

 contractions of the corrugating walls of the body. 

 Occasionally, the free extremit}^ of a filament would 

 appear, but more frequently the hight of a hent one, 

 and very often I saw two, and even three, issue from 

 the same cinclis. The successive contractions of the 

 animal under irritation, caused the acontia alreadv 

 protruded to lengthen with each fresh impetus, the 

 bights still streaming out in long loops, till pei'haps 

 the free end would be liberated, and it would be a 

 loop no longer; and sometimes a new thread would 

 shoot from a cinclis, whence one or two long ones were 



