Ill COELENTERATA 51 



Anemones Anemones easy to procure and to keep in health are 



suitable for the beautiful Plumose Anemones (Actinoloba dianthus) 

 the Tank, common on the East Coast in deep water — they are 

 large, pale-pink or white forms with frilled tentacles ; also the 

 Common Smooth or Beadlet Anemone (Actinia mesembryanthem.um), 

 the form described on page 45 ; and the Daisy Anemone (Sagartia 

 bellis), common on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, but rather 

 difficult to obtain as it is wont to inhabit a hole in a rock into 

 which it can completely withdraw itself. It is a curious form, 

 with relatively narrow column and a spreading disc at the top, 

 three or four times the diameter of the column. 



Many other anemones may be kept, but it is well to begin with 

 only two or three kinds at first ; the Plumose Anemone lives best 

 by itself, for when with other kinds of anemones it may get "bad- 

 tempered," and shoot out " acontia " at the others when it comes 

 into contact with them, and discharge mucus so that none of them 

 thrive. 



The anemones should be fed on little pieces of raw or cooked 

 beef, or the flesh of shrimps ; the morsel should be held in wooden 

 forceps 1 just over the anemone until it seizes it with its tentacles. 

 All uneaten particles of meat should be carefully removed from 

 the water. 



During the first fortnight, several of the anemones will very 

 possibly die, but those that are left at the end of this time may 

 live for years, and will reproduce freely. The little free-swimming 

 new anemones may be observed in the process of being discharged 

 from the mouth of a large anemone, and then going off to fix them- 

 selves in some far comer to begin their own lives. Sometimes a 

 mere fragment of the column of an anemone, which has become 

 detached when the anemone moved, may be seen to develop into 

 a perfect individual ; this frequently occurs in the Plumose 

 Anemone. 



A more extended study of Sea-anemones should be made on 

 some rocky coast where they are abundant, such as many parts of 

 Devon and Cornwall. " Finds " may be identified by reference to 

 Gosse's History of British Sea Anemones and Corals (1866), which 

 is still the standard work on the subject. 



^ Convenient long wooden forceps can he bought of any dealer ; T. Bolton 

 supplies them. They can be made without much difficulty. 



