or a shelled mollusk come within reach of its tentacles, than it is seized by them, and drawn to the gaping mouth of the greedy flower, the tentacles closing upon it on all sides. After awhile the tentacles again expand, and an empty crust or shell is ejected through the mouth, the nourishing contents having been mysteriously extracted in the stomach of the anemone.
And now, abstemious reader, can you wonder at the voracity of these strange creatures? If you had a stomach of proportional capacity, a mouth equally extensive, and a hundred arms constantly picking up dainties, depend upon it you would be quite as voracious!
The anemone attaches itself to the rock by means of a sucking base, but it seldom remains long in the same place. In travelling it pushes forward one portion of the base, and having fixed it firmly, draws the remaining portion after it, a mode of progression very similar to that adopted by the snail. There are many more wonderful things connected with the sea-anemones which we cannot stop to consider, as we must now pass on to another kind of living flower.
The madrepore[1] is allied to the anemones, but differs from them in many important points. This beautiful little flower of the sea has a stony skeleton, consisting of a number of thin chalky plates standing up edgewise, and arranged in a radiating
- ↑ Caryophyllia Smithii.
