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
feeler can be moved from side to side, and can also be tucked away, out
of sight and out of danger; but, when hungry, the animal spreads them
widely, for, as we shall see, they are the net in which it catches its
dinner.
The whole body of the Anemone is like two bags, one hanging inside the
other. The space between the two bags is filled with water. The feelers
are hollow tubes which open out of this space; so they, too, are filled
with water.
[Illustration: CRUSTACEA.
1. THE LARVA OF A LEAF-BODIED CRUSTACEAN CALLED PHYLLOSOMA.
2. A PRAWN-LIKE CREATURE, SHOWING THE FRONT LIMBS THAT ARE USED FOR
GRASPING PREY.
3. A CRAB.
4. THIS IS A SHRIMP-LIKE CREATURE CALLED CUMA SCORPIOIDES.
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