89 



of which I have never yet seen a specimen that in the faintest way 

 resembled Bellis perentiis^ is exceedingly common when you know 

 how to look for it, and what to see. From its exasperating habit of 

 attaching its base at the bottom of a narrow crack in the rock, it is 

 difficult to get specimens without either spoiling them or spoiling 

 your fingers. To most persons it is an invisible species, yet when 

 you know it, it is a very striking form. In captivity it must have a 

 stone beneath which it can bury the lower part of its column, and 

 hide the whole if necessary. It is somewhat irritable, and extrudes 

 a considerable quantity of the stinging threads, chiefly from its base. 

 There are writers who have denied that these threads have any 

 urticating property ; but it is certain that these persons cannot have 

 observed very patiently. Over and over again I have witnessed 

 tragedies enacted in which these threads were the deadly weapons 

 used. Only a few minutes prior to the writing of these notes, on 

 looking into an aquarium, I discovered a Trochus zizyphinus partly 

 out of its shell, and looking as though dead, yet it still adhered 

 slightly to the glass. From it was a single white stinging thread, 

 connecting it with the base of a Cereus pedunculatus that was changing 

 quarters and lying detached on the gravel. I touched Trochus, 

 and it sleepily pulled itself together, loosed its hold of the glass, and 

 retired slowly as far into its shell as its operculum would permit. 

 The movement irritated the thread, and it began to coil spirally in 

 the middle. What was the effect of this thread movement on Trochus 

 I cannot say, but from its shell there now poured out a milky fluid. 

 I presume that the object of the Anemone was to disable the mollusk, 

 that it might swallow it at leisure.^ 



Cylista tmdata (Mull.), the Cave-dweller, is easily confused with 

 Cereus pedunculatus until it is well known. Its burrowing habit is 

 similar, but it chooses more retired nooks. It occurs in the pools 

 of Pencabe, but is more abundant at Pednvadden Point, on the 

 opposite side of our little bay. 



Bunodes verrucosa (Penn.), the Gem Pimplet, is an exquisite 

 creature, though of simple colouring. I considered myself fortunate, 

 some months ago, to find a few small specimens buried in sand at 

 the base of a rock in the Long Drang ; but now that I have it well 

 "in my eye," I find it abundantly in all the rock-pools that are lined 

 with Corallina officinalis. In such situations it is practically invisible, 

 and I have amused myself by pointing out a group of three or four 

 full-grown and fully-expanded individuals to sharp-eyed lads, from 

 whom no bird can hide her nest in the densest hedge, but they have 

 failed to see Bunodes, though my pointing finger almost touched 

 them. This species readily adapts itself to a life of captivity, and 

 freely produces its living young. The larvae are retained for some 

 time in the hollow tentacles of the parent, where they may easily be 

 observed. When finally cast out, the young are about \ of an inch 

 in diameter, quite pellucid, and crowned with twelve tentacles. They 



1 Subsequent observation proved the correctness of this supposition. 



