ZOOPHYTES. 139 



himself inside-out, and so give you an opportunity of inspect- 

 ing it at your leisure. At e, are coiled up in separate 

 chambers,. certain organs, that, until lately, were supposed to 

 be, and therefore, were called the " ovaries." Sections of 

 the chambers in which they lie are given at g ; they com- 

 municate one with another by means of openings, repre- 

 sented at /, and with the tentacles at c. The true ovaries, 

 however, have been discovered by Mr. G. H. Lewes, who 

 thus leaves the function of the convoluted bands (e) a 

 problem to be solved ; as the true ovaries lie under the 

 convoluted bands by which they are completely hidden. 



If you incommode " daisy," the popular name of a species 

 of Anemone — and the same fact may be observed in the 

 common brown American species (Actinia marginata) — with 

 your finger nail, he will shoot out from nearly every part 

 of his body numerous white seeming threads at you. He 

 uses these for the purpose of defence, as well as to secure 

 his prey. Cut off the end of one of them never fear, he 

 will not mind it — and put it under a microscope, and it will 

 present the appearance of a cylindrical white cord, moving 

 freely by means of multitudes of "cilia" or hairs, with 

 which it is fringed, and composed of an outside membrane 

 to which the cilia are attached. 



"When the Anemone recovers his temper, he draws back the 

 threads into his body. As to the true use of the "spike 

 cases," as the cells that contain these threads are called, I 

 can give the reader but little information. It has been 

 found, however, that they have not the stinging power that 

 was once attributed to them. Many naturalists believe them 

 to be weapons of defence, and that the spike with which the 



