THE SEA ANEMONE.
HOW many beautiful things God has made. He covers the earth with flowers, and he fills the seas with many things as beautiful as flowers.
Go down on the beach when the tide is low, and you may see upon the rocks among the sea-weed a lovely pink blossom shaped like a daisy, with fringed petals growing around a very thick stalk. If you touch this flower it disappears, and in place of the pink petals there is nothing to be seen but an ugly little stump, of a dull red color. Let the stump alone for a while, and it will gradually unfold until the bright pink flower is restored in all its beauty.
This is the sea-anemone, which, after all, is not a flower, but a queer little animal that lives on sea-insects and small fishes, which it catches with those beautiful rosy fingers. We see in our picture one variety of these curious little creatures. The thick stump is the body of the animal, and the lovely flower that crowns it, is a circle of
arms, that spread out far and wide to catch any straggler within reach, and bring it to the open mouth in the center, where it is rapidly swallowed up.
The sea-anemones are not all pink, but they are all wonderfully pretty. The star-anemone is of a pale green color, sometimes tinged with pink. Others are light brown or dark brown, orange-colored, salmon, or white; sometimes they are striped with two or three shades, sometimes mottled in different colors. The pink anemone, which is often large enough to fill a saucer, is, however, for size and beauty, the queen of the sea-flowers.
These little animals love to hide themselves under projecting rocks and among mosses and sea-weeds. They sometimes remain for a long time on a particular rock, but can move at will from one part of the sea to another.
Dainty, brilliant, and marvelous, these beauties of the sea are only another reminder of the wisdom and skill of the Creator.
AMONG THE ROCKS.
WHEN we were at the seashore this summer, besides the waves and the sand, the forts we built, and the tumbles in the surf, we had such a nice time in finding so many curious things.
One morning when we were out walking on the shore, where the rocks slope down to the water, mamma stopped to look into a tiny pool of water that had been left on the rocks when the tide went out. It was a very clear little pool, with sand at the bottom, and all fringed around with green and purple seaweeds, and it looked just like a great many others all around us; but mamma told sister to lift the weeds gently and see what was under them. There, lying imbedded in the sand, we saw a cluster of the most beautiful sea anemones; of course you know what those are, that is, if you have ever been at the sea-shore. They are curious plants that are alive.
All plants are alive, but these curious ones belong to the lowest order of the animal kingdom; and they stretch out their long feelers, that look so much like branches instead of hands
and arms, to catch their food with. Those we found in the little pool were of a great many beautiful colors; blue, crimson, and buff. The were having a very nice time indeed, and stretching out
their long arms for any prey that might come within their reach. The moment we touched one, it drew in its arms. How do you suppose it managed to hide them all, when there were so many of them, inside of its body?
After that, we looked in all the pools on the rocks up and, down the shore for a long way every morning, and we found ever so many kinds of these wonderful and beautiful things.
Some of them looked ever so much like a strawberry, and some of them had blue "tubercles" around the top of them, that when they were open looked exactly like turquoise beads.
In almost every pool, hidden under the long leaves of the plants, we found such beautiful anemones, bright green and violet, rose color and gray. Some of them are shaped like a daisy, and these are very funny; for when any one takes hold of them, they get very angry, and throw out long, white threads from their body, and try to strike the fingers that touch them, and all these little threads are poisonous.
Sometimes we found a great many small crabs, and they always tried their best to pinch us if we took hold of them. Did you ever see a hermit crab? We used often to see old battered shells walking about on the sand, and when we turned them over, would find they were the houses of hermit crabs; for they must always have a house, and sometimes they even live in the bowl of an old pipe, if they can find one.
There is another kind of crab. We never found them on the rocks, but I have seen them at the New York Aquarium; they spend their whole time in dressing themselves up by fastening little pieces of seaweed all over their shells. Don't you think they must look funny? Why, they look just like little salt-water bushes, mamma says, walking about.
We had so many nice times at the seashore that I couldn't begin to tell you half of them. Sometimes Nannie and I took turns in wading, because the crabs always bite your toes if they can; and besides the beautiful seaweeds, we used to find star-fish; once a sea-urchin and a pretty, little spiky hedge-hog; only his prickles were of all sorts of colors instead of being just a dull brown.
When we got home, we went to see all the wonderful fishes and things at the Aquarium. It was so nice to know all about a good many of the seaweeds, anemones, and the crabs, because mamma had told us all about them when we were away.
A Little Girl.