
Ld ~ 
OUR SEA-ANEMONES. 253 
organized creatures have no eyes, nor even nerves, they are 
very sensitive to strong light, and love the shade. They 
may also, at times, be found clinging to the piles of wharves, 
and on small stones and shells, wholly unprotected. Near 
Mount Desert Island, I once saw, during a very low tide, 
4 large surface of rocky bottom so completely covered by 
them, that the foot could not be put down without crushing 
many noble specimens. A single stone, the size of a man’s 
head, taken from this place, was found to be the residence 
of sixty individuals, of all sizes. They sometimes occur at a 
greater depth than twenty-five fathoms, but are frequently 
found between high and low-water mark, both in pools and 
in places where they are left dry for an hour or more, where 
they hang relaxed and flabby until the tide returns, when 
they quickly revive. To remove large specimens of this 
species from their favorite rock, without serious injury, is 
no easy matter; for although they are not permanently at- 
tached, but are capable of moving freely about by gliding 
along upon their large, highly muscular, adhesive base, yet 
when disturbed they cling so closely and firmly to the rock, 
that they are very liable to be torn open upon the base, 
tather than loosen their hold. But if the rock be tolerably 
smooth, by gradually and carefully starting them up by 
Pushing with the thumb-nail or some dull instrument against 
and under the base, they may finally be safely removed. If 
roken open they will never recover or heal, though they 
will usually expand and appear very well for several days. 
In the confinement of an aquarium, or even in a jar or 
bowl of sea-water, one of these Actinias will soon make 
nig at home, and, fixing itself upon one side of the vessel 
by its base, will expand its feathery plume of tentacles day 
after day in search of tiny prey, and woe to the unlucky 
“reature, be it animalcule, shell-fish, shrimp, or fish, that 
omes in contact with its crown of gorgon-tentacles, armed 
“ith myriads of poison-darts, deadly to all creatures des- 
tined to Be its prey! When fully expanded, this species has 

