THE SMOOTH ANEMONE 123 



without moving, as oysters and barnacles do. 

 Sometimes they will creep slowly along over the 

 surface of the rock, in order to find a more com- 

 fortable situation, or one where they will have 

 a better chance of catching prey. And some- 

 times they will loose their hold of the rock 

 altogether, rise to the surface of the water, turn 

 upside down, and hollow their bodies in such a 

 way that they form little boats, which can float 

 along over the waves for quite a long distance. 



PLATE XLI 



THE SMOOTH ANEMONE (i) 



This is by far the commonest of all the sea 

 anemones, and you may find it in hundreds and 

 thousands by going down among the rocks when 

 the tide is out, and looking into the pools. You 

 are almost sure to see that their rocky walls 

 are dotted all over with lumps of brown or dark 

 green jelly, some only about as big as peas and 

 some as large as plums. These are Smooth 

 Anemones, with their fleshy feelers, or " tentacles " 

 closed. And just here and there you may see 

 one of them open, and you will notice that all 

 the way round the edge of its body, between 

 the roots of the tentacles, it has a row of little 



