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ZOOLOGY. 27 
or foot, to the rock on which it lives. It has the power of 
slowly changing its position by a gliding movement, but 
does not often do this. The free end, with the mouth in the 
centre, is surrounded by a wreath of arms (tentacles), which 
contain multitudes of minute vesicles, with coiled threads, 
which are often projected, and serve to paralyze or entangle 
living prey. These tentacles are hollow and pierced with 
small holes. Each tentacle leads into, or is the prolongation 
of, the general cavity of the body upwards; so when the 
Anemone shuts itself up, the water which filled it is ejected 
through the tentacles, making as many little fountains as 
the Anemone has arms. The stomach, consisting simply of 
two fold (Figs. 15, a, a), open below, and suspended from 
the mouth, is held in position by folds, called mesenteries, 
running to the walls of the body. (Fig. 16. Hanging to 
these folds are seen the eggs, which, dropping into the 
general cavity of the body, come out of the mouth. The 
general cavity of the body is at once the common system 
by which the food is digested, and carried to different parts 
of the body, and the effete matters got rid of. There 
no separation 
are no 
intestines, no arteries, veins, gills, or lungs; 
into organs; little of that division of labor which is so strik- 
ing in the economy of the higher animals. 
stones called “brain stones” are constructed by animals 
allied to the Anemone in structure, as are also the beautiful 
rocks of madrepore. The coral reefs as large as islands, 
indeed, often the rocks on which the island verdure has 
grown, are the results of the unseen, untiring work through 
There 
is nothing which gives one a more profound appreciation 
of the lapse of ages, of immense periods of time, than the 
formation of the parts of the earth constructed by such 
agencies, 
Suppose the chambers of an Anemone to contract into 
canals, that this modified Anemone loosens itself, turns 
The curious 
countless ages of these minute and beautiful beings. 
