73 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



The Scarlet-fringed Anemone (Sagartia minia'd) has a 

 crimson -brown column with buff-coloured suckers. The disk 

 is greenish grey with darker mottlings. The tentacles are 

 clear glassy, of a brown tint with darker rings ; on the surface 

 a pair of longitudinal dark lines converging to one point at the 

 tip of the tentacle ; at the base two patches each of black and 

 white alternating. The outer row of tentacles differ by having 

 the interior coloured with orange or scarlet, which shows clearly 

 through the thick but colourless substance of the tentacle ; 

 from these the Anemone gets its name of Scarlet-fringed. It 

 inhabits holes in the rock-pools, and in the rocks of deep 

 water, but does not affect such deep and narrow crevices as 

 the Cave-dweller. 



Occasionally, when we are engaged in stone-turning at low- 

 water, we shall come across a colony of the pale spectral forms 

 of the Snake r locked Anemone (Cylista iriduatcf), but it is one 

 found only with difficulty, because in the daytime it com- 

 presses itself into a dirty yellow button as thick as about six 

 of the pages of this book, with pale lines radiating from the 

 centre. In this condition it offers to the eye the appearance 

 of a limpet-shell, or a flake of rock. I once found a colony of 

 seven individuals on the back of the Gabrick Spider-crab 

 (Maia sqttinado], where no doubt they had been planted by 

 the crab with a view to getting artistic effects. This suggests to 

 us that some of the deep-water species, not referred to here, 

 may be obtained by examining the shells of oysters, quins, 

 whelks, etc., which are dredged in deep waters. 



Supposing you have been fortunate enough to find a small- 

 sized stone supporting two or three of these compressed 

 Anemones (Cylistd), and having taken it home have placed it in 

 a thin glass tumbler of sea-water for observation. At night you 

 look at the glass to see how the strangers are doing, and behold 

 with astonishment the change that has taken place. The 

 depressed yellow button has gone, and where it lay there 

 stands a tall and elegantly-formed column, two inches in 



