Life Beneath the Waves. 25 



is the variety of shapes it continually 

 assumes : when fully expanded, and one is 

 admiring the regularity of its tentacles, 

 and its general perfection of form, sud- 

 denly, and without any apparent reason, 

 some of its transparent feelers become 

 contracted, and are withdrawn into its disc, 

 thus causing the creature to appear what is 

 called " lop-sided ;" at another time, instead 

 of altering the arrangement of its tentacles, 

 its mouth and interior are protruded in 

 such an extraordinary manner, that the 

 anemone seems to be actuated by the 

 desire of turning itself inside out, to use a 

 common expression ; and sometimes it sud- 

 denly closes itself up altogether, and instead 

 of reminding one of a beautiful Dahlia, it 

 looks more like an ill-shaped and unwhole 

 some orange. 



Other anemones in the same tank with 



