THE CCELENTERATA 39 



which is being tenanted by the common hermit crab 

 (Pagurus Bernhardus), but this is a misapplication of the 

 term " parasitic." This only applies in the correct sense 

 to such animals or plants as live upon some other, and at 

 the expense of the latter, for their own ends. The anemone 

 and the crab are " commensals " or messmates, that is all. 

 Adamsia parasitica (I dare not alter the name) is a pretty 

 form; thecolumn is about two inches high by one in diameter, 

 and is striped longitudinally with chocolate and white. 

 The tentacles are very fine and fluffy, like a powder-puff. 

 Their colour is either pearly white or a delicate salmon tint. 



The advantage this anemone gains by its choice of a 

 dwelling is obvious. It has the means of rapid transit to 

 where food is to be had. The hermit crab being its pur- 

 veyor, it has gained the use of the crab's eyes, olfactory 

 organs, and legs. When the crab has found something 

 good to eat, and tears this with its pincers, knife-and-fork 

 fashion, many fragments are set free, and the anemone, that 

 prefers, as I have said before, broken-up food, saves the 

 fragments. 



The woodcuts that appear in many books even our 

 high- class ones which represent this anemone and its 

 congener, are in one respect incorrect. The anemone is 

 always represented as upright palm-tree-like on the top 

 of its equipage, as if its chief object were display or a-ride. 



I have kept many hundreds of this queer pair, and 

 handled thousands more, and I may say that- this position 

 is rare, and when it occurs is temporary (if it occurs at all). 

 I have invariably found the anemone affixed to the rear of 

 the shell, and in such position that when the hermit is at 

 a meal, or even moving about, the margin of the tentacles 

 just touch the ground, like some patent sweeping machine. 

 It, no doubt, finds this position the best paying one. 



This anemone presents a feature that I have not observed 

 in any other. When it is irritated it throws out bundles 



