Sea Anemone
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Sea Anemone. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the popular name given to a number of animals of the subkingdom Cælenterata and class Actinozoa, including the genus Actinia and other genera. All sea anemones, however varied in coloration or form, present the essential structure and appearance of a fleshy cylinder, attached by its base to a rock or stone, and presenting at its free extremity the mouth, surrounded by a circlet of arms or tentacles. With these tentacles, which may be very numerous, in some cases exceeding 200 in number, they seize and secure their food-small crustacea, mollusks, such as whelks, etc. -which they paralyze by means of the thread cells common to them with all Cœlenterata. The mouth leads into a When fully expanded, the stomach sac. appearance of the anemones in all their varieties of color is exceedingly beautiful. But on the slightest touch the tentacles can be quickly retracted within the mouth aperture, the fluids of the body are expelled by the mouth, and the animal, from presenting the appearance of a fully expanded flower, becomes a conical mass jelly-like matter. They are, most of of jel them, diœcious, that is, having the sexes situated in different indivi individuals. The young are developed within the parent body, and appear in their embryo state as free swimming ciliated bodies of an oval shape. The sea anemones resemble the Hydræ in their marvelous powers of resisting injuries and mutilation. They are eaten as food in Italy, Greece and on various coasts.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a marine animal allied to the corals. The common sea-anemone is a hollow cylinder attached by one end to the bottom of the sea, while the other is surrounded by a forest of outward-bending, plume-like, richly-colored filaments. In the center is a mouth into which it is the business of the filaments or tentacles to drag small fishes or marine insects. Looking down into the sea one can hardly believe that he is not looking at upturned sunflowers, anemones, chrysanthemums, and other flowers. If the animal be disturbed, the stem shortens down to the point of attachment, the tentacles are drawn within and protected by a circular, dingy muscle that closes over them, like the mouth of a handbag, leaving scarcely an aperture at the center. When all is quiet, the stemelongates, the cover relaxes, the tentacles steal out, and the sea-anemone is in bloom again. If food becomes scarce most sea-anemones have the power to detach themselves and to locate elsewhere.