ASTR^ACEA. 
BUNODIDJi. 
THE RED-SPECKED PBIPLET. 
Bunocles JBallii. 
Plate IV. Fir/. 4. 
Specific Character. Warts sub-equal, vertically contiguous, red-spotted. 
Actinia Ballii. 
clavata. 
B anodes clavata. 
Cereus clavata. 
Cocks, Rep. Com. Soc. 1849, 94 ; Ibid. 1851, 9 ; pi. ii. 
figs. 9, 17, 18. 
Thompson (w.), Zoologist, 1851, App. cxxvii. Gosse, 
Ann. N. H. Ser. 2, vol. xii. 127. Aquarium, 35. 
Tugwell, Man. Sea Anem. 100, pi. iv. Jordan, Ann. 
N. H. Ser. 2, xv. 88. 
Gosse, Linn. Trans, xxi. 274. Ann. N. H. Ser. 3, i. 
417. 
Milne Edwards, Hist. Corail. i. 267. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 
Form. 
Base. Adherent to rocks; considerably exceeding the column ; generally 
length*ned-ovate in outline. 
Column. Low and broad, scarcely rising to a pillar-form. Surface 
covered with warts about equal in size, arranged in forty-eight longitu- 
dinal rows, of which the alternate rows are traceable from the margin only 
about half-way down the column ; the warts are contiguous vertically, but 
the rows are separated laterally, by interspaces of equal width, of corru- 
gated skin. The iirimary rows consist of about twenty- four warts, 
becoming indistinct towards the base; the uppermost individuals of all 
the I’ows crowning the margin as blunt teeth. 
Dislc. Flat ; the outline nearly circular, often much overlapping the 
column. Radii distinct; gonidial radii broad and strongly marked. 
Tentacles. Nearly marginal, set in five rows ; 6, 6, 12, 24, 24 = 72 : the 
first three rows nearly equidistant from the centre. They are longer and 
more slender than in gemmacea, conical, obtuse ; decreasing in size from 
the first row outwards ; and are usually carried horizontally spread, with 
a very constant tendency to curl upward at the tips. 
Mouth. Raised on a cone ; often gaping ; throat membranous, protru- 
sile : gonidial tubercles usually prominent, often inflated. 
Colour. 
Base. Red, sometimes rich crimson. 
