A FATAL MISHAP. 141 



The agents concerned in this adhesive and poisonous power 

 are thread-cells of the same general character as those of the 

 jelly-fish, which crowd the tentacles and various parts of the 

 body, where they are accumulated in special organs, and from 

 which they are projected at the will of the animal with lightning- 

 like rapidity. 



In none of the Anemones are these organs more potent than in 

 the species whose portrait stands at the head of this chapter, the 

 owner of the " green anther necks," AntJiea cereus. One of these 

 beauties is now before us, twitching and twirling about his long 

 snaky arms, attached to the side of an Aquarium, and it is only a 

 few days since that his poisonous powers deprived us of one of 

 the greatest pets of our marine establishment. The victim was a 

 fine hermit-crab which we had incautiously introduced to the 

 vase at the bottom of which Anthea was then seated. Master 

 Pagurus, as is his wont, began restlessly to promenade the en- 

 closure, and once or twice, before the fatal mishap, had been made 

 to wince by a slight touch from the tentacles of Anthea. But, 

 disregarding these gentle admonitions, at length he backed right 

 upon the Anemone. At first his whelk-shell domicile protected 

 him from all injury ; but presently moving a little on one side, 

 and slightly protruding his body, he brought his sensitive under- 

 surface fairly down upon the tentacles of Anthea. No movement 

 of these organs was seen ; but the poor Pagurus had barely ex- 

 posed himself to the attack before he sprang off from the Anemone 

 with a sudden and convulsive start, which left no room to doubt 

 what had happened. The poor fellow at once sidled away to the 

 shelter of an overhanging block of stone, and the next morning he 

 was found there dead. 



Mr. Gosse gives a still more striking illustration of the 

 venomous power of this lovely Anemone. One day in collecting 

 he dropped a young conger-eel about six inches long, into a jar 

 containing two large Antheas ; and before the fish had reached 

 the bottom of the jar, the tentacles of one of the Anemones were 

 entwined about its head, which was almost instantly dragged to 

 the cavernous mouth, and partially engulfed. The fish was 

 then withdrawn from its assailant by force, and though it had 

 been kept prisoner by the Anemone less than five minutes, it was 

 already flaccid and helpless, and survived its release for only a 

 few moments. 



