SEA-ANEMONES I THEIR WEAPONS. 415 



lens, many acontia protruded from the cinclides, and 

 many more of tlie latter widely open. The acontia, 

 in some cases, did not so accuratelj' fill the orifice but 

 that a line of bright light (or of darkness, according as 

 the sun was exactly opposite or not) was seen partially 

 bordering the issue of the thread, while the thickened 

 rim of the cinclis surrounded all. 



The appearance of the orifices whence the acontia 

 issued was that of a tubercle or wart, and the same 

 appearance I have repeatedly marked in examples 

 observed on the stage of the microscope ; namely, that 

 of a perforate pimple, or short columnar tube. This 

 was clearly manifest when the animal, slowly swaying 

 to and fro, brought the sides of the cinclis into partial 

 perspective. 



On" another occasion I witnessed the actual issue 

 of the acontia from the cinclides. I was watching, 

 under a low power of the microscope, a specimen of a 

 S. nivea, while, by touching its body rudely, I pro- 

 voked it to emit its missile filaments. Presently they 

 burst out with force, not all at once, but some here 

 and there, then more, and yet more, on the repeated 

 contractions of the corrugating walls of the body. 

 Occasionally, the free extremity of a filament would 

 appear, but more frequently the hight of a hent one, 

 and very often I saw two, and even three, issue from 

 the same cinclis. The successive contractions of the 

 animal under irritation, caused the acontia already 

 protruded to lengthen with each fresh impetus, the 

 bights still streaming out in long loops, till perhaps 

 the free end would be liberated, and it would be a 

 loop no longer; and sometimes a new thread would 

 shoot from a cinclis, whence one or two long ones were 



