HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-ANEMONES. 133 



the seaside visitor, who looks well into the rock- 

 pools at low water, is sure to capture as many 

 specimens as he will care to carry away. It is 

 a species, also, which multiplies rapidly in the 

 aquarium ; whilst it is certainly the oldest liver, and 

 the most hardy. The Eev. J. GL Wood relates an 

 instance of the latter quality worth repeating. He 

 says : " A gentleman had brought some of them to 

 town with him, and had been examining them in 

 company with a friend. After the examination, 

 supper was brought in by an unsophisticated 

 servant, and removed by the same individual. 

 While the table was being cleared, the servant 

 asked what was to be done with the anemones, and 

 was told to put them carefully away in a jug. Now 

 the only jug at that time on the table was a jug 

 containing porter, and into that jug the anemones 

 were severally dropped. About a fortnight after- 

 wards the anemones were again called into requi- 

 sition, and the jug demanded. Great was the as- 

 tonishment of their owner to see the porter jug 

 produced, and still greater when he found the 

 creatures were still living !" As illustrative of the 

 longevity of the " Beadlet," Mr. Lloyd mentions one 

 individual in an aquarium in Edinburgh, which has 

 lived there more than forty-four years, and during 

 that period produced more than a thousand young. 

 It is still healthy, and seems as likely to live 

 another forty years. Its name of " Beadlet " is 

 given to it on account of the rows of bright blue 



