THE SCARLET-FRINGED ANEMONE. 45 



if it did not possess any particular function. It had the 

 same colour as the others ; but was not, like them, wholly- 

 withdrawn when the animal was closed. In fact, it 

 appeared as if rather in the way, and not easily disposed 

 of by its possessor. After about a week [the phenomenon] 

 disappeared, and I have seen nothing of the lengthened 

 arms since, in either of the specimens that had had 

 them." 



Those curious missile filaments which I have named 

 acontia* are discharged by this species in great profusion. 

 They are, as usual, white, but appear to possess the power 

 of discharging a pigment. A large specimen, which I had 

 irritated by forcibly detaching it (in the usual way) from 

 a stone, diffused a copious mucus. Acontia were also 

 abundantly protruded, and spread to double the diameter 

 of the body on all sides, on the bottom of a saucer in 

 which I had placed it. After a while the whole of this 

 mucus over the same area was of a delicate but decided 

 roseate hue, as seen on the white china. The acontia are 

 very densely filled with cnidae, of two kinds, chambered and 

 unchambered. The former are x^th of an inch in length, 

 linear-ovate, of a clear pale yellow hue, highly refractile, 

 with a long parallel-sided chamber, extending through 

 three- fourths of the cnida. It discharges a wire iecihorawm) 

 about one and a half times its own length, furnished for 

 the distal two-thirds with a screw of two (or three) spiral 

 bands, closely set, and forming an angle with the axis of 

 30° : the bands are clothed with reverted barbs. The 

 unchambered cnidse are -g^yth of an inch long, of a similar 

 shape, shooting a wire to eight times its own length, which 

 is attenuated to a fine point, and is furnished with a single 

 screw-band, unbarbed. 



When out of water, miniata has the habit of protruding 



* See the General Introduction, for a full description of these organs. 



