THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
105 
lessly, which is sometimes an advan- 
tage. 
A good imitation of this Asiatic craft 
could be made, costing not more than 
twenty dollars anywhere in the United 
rStates, and in many places would cost 
much less. All boys, and girls, too, should 
be able to ^im. Those who can, if rea- 
sonably careful, might be trusted by the 
most timid of relatives in such a canoe, 
and they would find plenty of fun in hold- 
ing out a towrope in any weather to most 
of the high-priced yachts they may fall 
in with. 
Sea Anemones— II. 
BY A. W. EGBERTS. 
O M E years 
ago, becom- 
ing greatly 
interested in 
the ' dandy ' 
or decorat- 
ing spider 
■crabs, which are given to ornamenting 
themselves with bright colored bits of sea- 
weeds, etc., the idea suggested itself to 
me to cut up into reasonably small pieces 
a purple Bermuda anemone, and to slice 
off from the expanded bases of the bright- 
est colored of the fringed anemones, 
enough material to supply a small decor- 
ating spider-crab that had been hunting 
in vain for sea-weeds with which to adorn 
himself. Placing the crab in a sand bot- 
tom tank, I confined him in one corner 
by means of a pane of window glass. In 
less than an hour's time, after the hashed 
up anemones had been placed in his com- 
partment, he was hard at work deliber- 
ately (and with that peculiarly solemn 
and grave expression, that all the spider- 
crabs possess) fastening piece after piece 
of anemone to his upper shell. As he 
grasped each piece in his claw he then 
•conveyed it to his mouth where he 
covered it with a marine glue peculiar to 
spider-cra})s ; then slowly but surely he 
raised it to his back and with a slight 
downward pressure of the claw he placed 
it in position. And, so he continued till 
his entire back was covered with parti- 
cles of anemones. In the course of three 
to four weeks he was carrying about with 
him a vigorous colony of young ane- 
mones—and wasn't he a beauty! 
Fig. 1.— Showing anemone with double disk, and 
food passing into stomach. 
On another occasion having an ane- 
mone that was very uniquely mottled 
with brown and pure white, and of which 
I was very anxious to obtain more speci- 
mens of the same kind, I determined to 
resort to a vigorous system of division 
from the base of said anemone, by means 
of a razor, and thus multiply this variety 
Fig. 2.— Double-bodied anemone, showing the 
action of the lasso cells, which are invisible, 
except under the microscope. 
almost to an unlimited number of speci- 
mens. In the first place I took the pre- 
caution to feed the parent anemone liber- 
allv with the fattest of silver shrimps, foi 
