126 THE SEA-SHORE 



soon becomes covered up with sand. Besides 

 this, it has a great number of very tiny sucker- 

 feet, not unlike those of the starfishes and the 

 sea urchins, and with these it clings to tiny stones 

 and bits of broken shell, which often quite conceal 

 its upper surface, so that one really cannot see 

 the anemone itself at all. But it is quite one 

 of the very handsomest of all the British sea 

 anemones, for when it is fully grown it is over 

 five inches in width; and sometimes it is pearly 

 white in colour, and sometimes it is green, and 

 sometimes it is purple and brown, and sometimes 

 it is crimson, while its tentacles are banded with 

 scarlet and white. These tentacles are rather 

 stout in proportion to their length, and when 

 they are fully spread the animal looks very much 

 like a cactus dahlia. 



PLATE XLII 

 THE SNAKE-LOCKED ANEMONE (2) 



This is also one of the prettiest of these very 

 pretty creatures. But it is not in the least like 

 the thick-armed anemone, for instead of having 

 a broad, stout body it has a long slender one; 

 and instead of short, thick tentacles, like the 

 petals of a dahlia, it has a bunch of almost thread- 



