. AQTJABIUlr. 



One is a brilliant blood red ; another a delicate sea blue, striped 

 with pink ; but most have the disc and the innumerable arms 

 striped and fringed with various shades of grey and brown. 

 Shall we get them P By all means, if we can. Touch one. 

 Where is he now P Gone P Vanished into air or into stone P 

 Not quite. Yon see that sheet of sand and broken shell lying on 

 the rock where your dahha was one moment ago. Touch it, and 

 you will find it leathery and elastic. What, is this all which 

 remains of the live dahlia ? Never mind ; get your finger into 

 the crack under him. Work him gently, but firmly out, take 

 him home, and he will be as happy and as gorgeous as ever 

 to-morrow. Let your Actinise stand for a day or two in the 

 dish, and then, picking out the liveliest and handsomest, detach 

 them once more from their hold, drop them into your vase, right 

 them with a bit of stick, so that the sucking base is downwards, 

 and leave them to themselves thenceforth. 



" These two species are quite enough to give a begiuner 

 amusement ; but there are two others which are not uncommon, 

 and of such exceeding loveliness that it is worth while to take 

 a little trouble to get them. The one is BelHs, the sea-daisy. 

 It is common at Ilfracombe and at Torquay, and, indeed, every- 

 where where there are cracks and small holes in limestone or 

 slate rocks. In these holes it fixes its base, and expands i*^ 

 delicate brown-grey star-hke flowers on the surface; but it 

 must be chipped out with hammer and chisel, and at the expense 

 of much dirt and labour ; for the moment it is touched it con- 

 tracts deep into the rock, and all that is left of the daisy 

 flower, some two or three inches across, is a blue knob about 

 half the size of a marble. But it will expand again after a 

 day or two of captivity, and well repay the trouble it has 

 cost. 



" The other is Dianthus, which you may find adhering to 

 fresh oysters, in any dredger or trawler's skiff, a lengthened 

 mass of olive, pale rose, or snow-white jelly ; the rose and the 

 white are the most beautiful. If you find one, clear the 

 shell on which it grows of everything else (you may leave 

 the oyster inside if you will), and watch it expand under water 

 into a furbelowed flower furred with innumerable delicate 

 tentaculse, and in the centre a mouth of the most beautiful 

 orange. 



" Next, your sea- weeds, if they thrive as they ought to do, 

 will sow their minute spores in millions around them; and 

 these as they vegetate wiU form a green film on the inside of 



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