68 LIFE BY THE SEASHORE. 



specimens, it will be found that they are attached, not to 

 one smooth surface, but to a number of objects, in a fashion 

 that makes them difficult to extricate without injury. 

 Further observation in a neighbouring pool will probably 

 disclose some other fully expanded specimens in which the 

 characters can be studied. The anemone is characterised by 

 the size of the base as compared to that of the column ; it is 

 a low, flattened animal, with a diameter often of several 

 inches. The tentacles are short, very thick, and not 

 numerous ; they have none of the snaky appearance usually 



FIG. 24. Tealia crassicornis, the thick-horned anemone. Note the central 

 mouth, and the stout, banded tentacles. After Tugwell. 



associated with anemones' tentacles. The surface of the 

 column is covered by distinct warts or papillee, to which 

 shells and stones are attached. The colours vary, but reds 

 and greens are common, while the tentacles are banded 

 with white, and have very distinct reddish bands round 

 their bases, which extend over the disc towards the mouth. 

 Though the majority of the thick-horned anemones found 

 between tide-marks are of this type, yet in those narrow 

 rock-clefts which are swept clean by the tidal currents 

 but never completely emptied, another variety occurs. At 

 North Berwick, for example, the shore rocks are hollowed 

 out into many fissures and crevices, and it frequently 

 happens that a cleft, which from above seems narrow 

 enough, widens out below into an extensive deeply shaded 



