58 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
power of locomotion the anemones are oftener 
content to remain fixed to the friendly rock 
upon which, as minute spores, they first found 
a resting place. As we have already observed, 
in a state of absolute repose the smooth and 
bright-colored dome is all that is to be seen. 
Let us watch, however, the occurrence of sub¬ 
sequent changes—their method and purpose. 
Possibly a stray sunbeam has found its way 
into the rocky cavern, or through the window 
of the Aquarium, till its rays, as they illumine 
the polished dome, adding to it a new and 
rare lustre, serve also to remind the creature 
that feeding time has come. Slowly the de¬ 
pression at the summit of the dome widens 
and enlarges until along its interior edges 
begin to appear the delicate fringe-like tenta¬ 
cles. Just as in the budding of the opening 
daisy the parting of the stamens discloses 
the fringed edges of the long imprisoned 
petals, so the awakening of its marine name¬ 
sake is marked by the appearance of these 
delicate tentacles, till at last the summit of 
the dome is capped with a grateful cluster of 
blossoms on a crimson or golden stalk; for 
while this expansion of the summit was in 
en place, till the dome is now a column, often 
several inches in hight, and crowned with a 
flower-like capital. 
The time has now come for making those 
special observations, the result of which will 
be to justify the Anemone in its claim for a 
place among the so-called intelligent organ¬ 
isms as distinguished from the unconscious 
plant and flower. 
The first special peculiarity to be here ob¬ 
served is that indicated by the constant ac¬ 
tivity of the tentacles. IJnlike the petals of 
the daisy, which move only when shaken by 
the wind or in response to the salute of the 
butterfly or bee, the tentacles of the Anemone 
are in a state of constant activity, and with 
what purpose will soon be detected. 
A shrimp, itself in search of food it may 
be, or possibly wishing to bask in the same 
sunbeam which animated the anemone, is seen 
entering the sacred precincts of this marine 
garden. As it approaches our newly-awak¬ 
ened blossom, we discover that the action of 
the tentacles becomes so violent that they 
mark the centre of a miniature whirlpool 
of which their motion is the origin, and into 
whose abyss the marauder, unless more wary, 
will soon be engulphed. And now we are to 
witness a phenomenon so strangely interest¬ 
ing and novel that, but for seeing it with our 
own eyes, we might well be pardoned for 
questioning its reality; and hence, in order 
the more willingly to accept the fact as about 
to be demonstrated, a truce must be declared 
until the observer, by a more critical examina¬ 
tion of a peculiar structural feature of the 
anemone, has the better fitted himself for his 
duties as a spectator of the coming conflict. 
If in the course of our previous hurried dis¬ 
section of the dome we had brought to our 
aid a powerful magnifying glass, there would 
have been discovered distributed about the 
surface of the dome, or along the sides of the 
tentacles, numberless minute transparent vesi¬ 
cles in which were coiled, like tangles of fine 
sewing silk, delicate thread-like filaments ; 
these are known by the descriptive name of 
Ipssos, and the animal so controls them as to 
ihrow them out at will, projecting their outer 
ends to a distance of several inches beyond 
the range of the tentacles themselves. Each 
of these thread-like filaments is armed with a 
set of barbs or spines which in their turn have 
the power of emitting a secretion so venomous 
that even if the prey escape the entanglement 
of the lasso the sting of the barb will result 
fatally. 
Let us now verify these observations by wit¬ 
nessing the conflict between the anemone and 
its prospective victim. 
Allured by the brilliant hues of the waving 
tentacles, or unwittingly yielding to the attrac¬ 
tion of the miniature whirlpool, the shrimp 
ventures at last a wave too far. With an activ- 
i(y and skill which can but betoken the pres¬ 
ence of a determined will and intelligent pur¬ 
pose, the discharge of the lassos begin, the 
water about, above and below the victim be¬ 
comes milky in hue, owing to the sudden in- 
I. ! • 1 .-iJSxg&ji? - 
Stung by the poisonous barbs, and entangled 
in a net of silken threads, the body of the 
hapless shrimp is drawn limp and paralyzed 
to within reach of the outstretched and eager 
tentacles ; once grasped by them and the end 
has come. The same wavy motion which first 
DAHLIA WARTLET—Expanded. 
enticed and then drew the body to within 
reach, now projects it over into the central 
vortex, that proves to be the mouth of the 
anemone. The closing of the flower now 
begins, and so rapidly is it accomplished that 
the change from a blossom to a bulb may be 
witnessed before our eyes. 
All is again quiet without and around, 
though the centre of activity has not been 
changed since the processes of digestion now 
going on within the dome are no less active 
and efficient than the movements which pre¬ 
ceded them. After the digestible portions of 
the shrimp have been assimilated the remain¬ 
der is discharged, either from beneath or 
through the orifice by which the entrance 
was effected. So fastidious is this creature 
that this waste furnishes a fruitful supply to 
other less dainty neighbors. 
In the Aquarium the visitor, if present at 
feeding time, may witness in all its details the 
operations here described, save that in artifi¬ 
cial feeding the food is oftener composed of 
minute portions of meat or mussels, which 
are so supplied as to fall within range of the 
current producing tentacles and thus preclude 
the use of the lassos. As illustrating the 
ravenous nature of the anemone as well as 
its abundant capacity, it may be stated that 
J& 
whelks,and other shelled molusca, assimilating 
the digestible portion and rejecting the re¬ 
mainder. Dr. Johnson states that he once had 
brought him an anemone that might have 
been originally two inches in diameter and 
which had somehow contrived to swallow a 
valve of Pecten maximus of the size of an or¬ 
dinary saucer. The shell fixed within the 
stomach was so placed as to divide it com¬ 
pletely into halves, so that the body stretched 
over it had become thin and flattened like a 
pancake. All communication between the in¬ 
terior portion of the stomach and the mouth 
was thus prevented, and yet instead of ema¬ 
ciating and dying of atrophy the animal had 
availed itself of what had undoubtedly been a 
very untoward accident to increase its enjoy¬ 
ment and its chance of double fare. A new 
mouth, furnished with two rows of numerous 
tentacular, was opened up in what had been 
the base and led to the under stomach. 
At this point the critical naturalist should 
be informed that the writer, claiming the 
poet’s license, has taken the liberty of as¬ 
cribing to a whole class peculiarities of habit 
and structure which belong to certain species 
alone, as for instance the anemones which 
possess in their highest development the lasso 
cells belong to the large British genus termed 
sagartia, the name being derived from an 
ancient race of warriors called Sagatians, 
whose weapon in war was a rope lasso. 
So acute are these creatures that it has been 
observed that if one of the occupants of a tank 
is being fed its comrades, though in a dis¬ 
tant part of the same tank,will become aroused 
