220 



TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



bouquet of chrysanthemums ; each has expanded 

 into a hundred-petalled flower, crimson, pink, purple, 

 or orange ; touch one, and it shrinks together like a 

 sensitive plant, displaying at the root of the petals 

 a ring of brilliant turquoise beads (fig. 43). That is 



the commonest of all 

 the Actiniae (Mesem- 

 bryanthenmni) . You 

 may have him when 

 and where you will ; 

 but if you will search 

 these rocks somewhat 

 closer, you will find 

 even more gorgeous 

 species than he. See 

 in that pool some 

 dozen noble ones in full bloom, and quite six inches 

 across, some of them. I f their cousins, whom we found 

 just now, were like chrysanthemums, these are like 

 quilled dahlias. Their arms are stouter and shorter in 

 proportion than those of the last species, but their 

 colour is equally brilliant. One is a brilliant blood red ; 

 another, a delicate sea-blue, striped with pink ; but 

 most have the disk and the innumerable arms striped 

 and ringed with various shades of grey and brown." x 



FIG. 43. SEA ANEMONE. 



1 " Glaucus ; or, the Wonders of the Shore," by Rev. C 

 Kingsley, M.A., p. 183. 



