DO THE ANEMONES STING? 129 



this power, much evidence against it. Some Anemones cer- 

 tainly appear to sting — as some jelly-fish sting — although the 

 majority have no such effect upon our hands, which every one 

 knows who has handled them. I never perceived this sting- 

 ing sensation myself ; and Dr Landsborough says : " From 

 my own experience I can say nothing as to this stinging 

 poAver ; for though I have handled not only the commoner 

 Actiniae, but also the larger and less common Anthea, I 

 never felt anything approaching to stinging ; but I never 

 touched a tentaculum without perceiving the tip of it had 

 some prehensile property by which it took a slight hold of 

 the skin of the finger, causing a kind of rasping feeling when 

 withdrawn. It may be, however, that the fangs had not fair 

 play with my fingers, if somehow or other they are sting- 

 proof." * He then makes the following quotation from Mrs 

 Pratt's Chapters on the Common Things of the Sea-side, 

 which I reproduce as positive and direct testimony : " It 

 appears that different persons are variously affected even by 

 touchino- the same Actiniae. The author had placed in a 

 vessel of sea-water a fine specimen of the fig maiygold sea- 

 anemone, which she was accustomed to touch many times 

 during the day. The tentacula closed immediately round the 

 intruding finger, producing only a slight tingling. Her sur- 

 prise was great at finding that the same anemone, on being 

 touched by another person, communicated a more powerful 

 sensation, which her friend assured her was felt up the 

 whole of the arm. More than twenty persons touched this 



* Popular History of Britinh Zoophytes, p. 239. 



