124 HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-ANEMONES. 



closely coiled, in forms varying according to the 

 description of capsule. , The extreme tenuity of the 

 thread may be imagined from the fact that the 

 largest capsules are not more than the three- 

 hundredth part of an inch in length, and that with- 

 in so small a compass the thread is coiled like a 

 watch-spring in the barrel. Indeed, the simile of a 

 watch-spring will nearly express the object, for the 

 thread is so strong, in spite of its tenuity, that it has 

 been aptly compared to the main-spring of a watch. 

 When the tentacles are irritated or compressed, 

 myriads of these capsules start forward, become 

 everted, and shoot forth their tiny spears. The 

 length and shape of these wonderful filaments are 

 very various, some being of a very great length, and 

 so fine that a microscope of high power can hardly 

 distinguish them ; while others are only two or three 

 times the length of the capsule that contained them, 

 and covered with an armature of short hairs even 

 more minute than themselves." There is, there- 

 fore, no wonder that these apparently helpless 

 creatures should be able to feed on animals much 

 higher in the scale than themselves, possessed, also, 

 with powers of rapid locomotion and quickness of 

 sight, neither of which distinguishes our sea- 

 anemone. Strong crabs, in spite of their powerful 

 limbs and pincers, have had to yield the ghost when 

 they have got in the grip of these " animal flowers." 

 Nay, it would even seem as though, in some cases, 

 the principle of mimicry had had something to do 



