THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 183 



What a change ! The dull lumps of jelly have taken 

 root and flowered during the night, and your dish is 

 filled from side to side with a bouquet of chrysanthe- 

 mums ; each has expanded into a hundred-petalled 

 flower, crimson, pink, purple, or orange ; touch one, 

 and it shrinks together like a sensitive plant, dis- 

 playing at the root of the petals a ring of brilliant 

 turquoise beads. That is the commonest of all the 

 Actiniae (Mesembryanthemum) ; you may have him 

 when and where you will : but if you will search 

 those rocks somewhat closer, you will find even more 

 gorgeous species than him. See in that pool some 

 dozen noble ones, in full bloom, and quite six inches 

 across, some of them. If their cousins whom we 

 found just now were like chrysanthemums, these are 

 lil^e quilled dahlias. Their arms are stouter and 

 shorter in proportion than those of the last species, 

 but their colour is equally brilliant. One is a bril- 

 liant blood-red ; another a delicate sea-blue striped 

 with pink ; but most have the disc and the innumer- 

 able arms striped and ringed with various shades of 

 grey and brown. Shall we get them ? By all means 



