132 



HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-ANEMONES. 



Fig. 67. 



" Opelet " anemone 

 (Anthca cereus). 



that it is very fatal to small fishes, &c., in the 

 aquarium. Another remarkable feature about it is 



that it occasionally 

 splits itself into two 

 individuals. The 

 reader cannot fail to 

 identify it by its dark 

 olive-green tentacles, 

 and their incapability 

 of retraction ; so that 

 it would seem as if their 

 colour atoned for this 

 defect, and assimilated 

 it to the surrounding seaweeds. 



The " Beadlet Anemone " (Actinia mesembryanthe- 

 mum, Fig. 68) is just the reverse of the Opelet, for 

 no other anemone has such thoroughly retractile 



tentacles. "When they 

 are withdrawn, the crea- 

 ture looks to all the 

 world like a globular 

 mass of jelly,. or, as Mr. 

 Gosse describes it, "like 

 ripe fruits, so plunrp, 

 and succulent, and 

 glossy, and high- 

 coloured, that we are 

 tempted to stretch forth the willing hand, to 

 pluck and eat." This species is without doubt 

 the most abundant in our British seas, and 



Fig. 68. 



Beadlet (Actinia mesem- 

 bryanthemurri). 



