THE DAISY ANEMONE. 25 



masses of Chylocladia articulata, that look like the 

 thickets of prickly pear which we see in the tropics, 

 only viewed through a diminishing glass, and turned 

 purplish-red. Laurencia pinnatifida clothes the 

 lower rocks abundantly, where the sea washes up ; 

 and along the margins of some of the ledges, and 

 around the rims of some of the lowest pools, 

 that curious plant Rhodymenia ciliata throws out 

 dense pendent tufts of its deep red fronds, all bristled 

 over with little leaflets in the most singular fashion. 



THE DAISY ANEMONE. 



All along this line of limestone rock, in almost 

 every tide-pool and hollow that retains the sea-water, 

 from the size of one's hand upwards, we may at 

 any time find colonies of the lovely Daisy Anemone, 

 Actinia bellis. In the sunshine of a fair day they 

 expand beautifully, and you may see them studding 

 the face of the rock just beneath the surface, from the 

 size of a shilling to that of a crown piece. Nothing 

 seems easier than to secure them, but no sooner do 

 the fingers touch one, than its beautifully circular 

 disk begins to curl and pucker its margin, and to 

 incurve it in the form of a cup ; if further annoyed, 

 the rim of this cup contracts more and more, until it 

 closes, and the animal becomes globose and much 

 diminished, receding all the time from the assault, 

 and retiring into the rock. Presently you dis- 

 cover that you can no longer touch it at all : it is 

 shrunk to the bottom of its hole ; the sharp irregular 

 edges of which project and furnish a stony defence 



D 



