94 How Sammy Went to Coral-Land 
disk for the same purpose. When the 
Anemone is at rest it expands its disk and 
draws in the sea water, and when it is 
disturbed it contracts, and throws out the 
water from its mouth. The Anemones 
are very sensitive to touch, and will 
shrink up like a sensitive plant. They 
are of all sizes too ; that little blue one 
over there is only about .one-eighth of an 
inch, and that big purple fellow stands 
over a foot from its base. 
“ You see that the body of the Anemone 
is shaped like a column, the flat head, or 
disk, being at the top, with rows of ten¬ 
tacles, like petals, fringing the edge. 
The bottom of the Anemone is also flat, 
and with this flat base it holds fast 
to the rocks to which it attaches itself. 
The Sea-Anemones are able to move 
about from rock to rock, and in that 
they differ from their first cousins, the 
