FLOWER-LIKE ANIMALS.

The prettiest of the creatures of the shore is the Sea Anemone. No one
can see it without being reminded of a flower, an Aster or Daisy, with a
thick stalk and many coloured petals; but, knowing how it is made, and
how it lives, we place it in the Animal Kingdom, though among the
lowliest members of that Kingdom. It is a cousin of that strange
creature, the Jelly-fish, which we shall look at in another lesson.

[Illustration: SEA ANEMONE.]

When the tide falls, you can walk among the rocks and pools by the sea,
and find Anemones in plenty. They are fixed to the rocks. Some are under
the ledges, out of sight, others are low down, half buried in the wet
sand; and others are on the sides of the rocks, looking like blobs of
green, brown, or red jelly. Feel one of them. It is slimy, and rather
firm, not so soft and yielding as the Jelly-fish. You cannot easily pull
it from the rocks without harming it; but you will find other Anemones
on stones and shells; and these you can put in a jar of sea-water, with
some weed, and carry home to examine later on.

When covered with sea-water the ugly blobs of jelly open out like
beautiful flowers. In some places along our coast the floor of the sea
is like a flower garden, gay with thousands of coloured Anemones.

Those little "petals" are really _tentacles_, used for catching and
holding food. We will use a shorter word and call them feelers. They are
set in circles round the top of the Anemone, and there are many of them.
The Daisy Anemone, for instance, has over seven hundred feelers. Each