183 



FAMILY V.— BUNODIDJG. 



1 propose to include in this family all those species, the 

 surface of whose column is studded with persistent tuber- 

 cles, and which are not provided with marginal spherules, 

 nor with perforations of the integument. In some instances, 

 certainly, — perhaps in all, — these excrescences have the 

 faculty of adhering with force to foreign bodies ; and thus 

 they agree in function with the 3uckers of many of the 

 Sagartiadce ; there is this difference, however, that whereas 

 in those, the margins of the suckers do not rise above the 

 general level when inactive, in these the tubercles are 

 always well developed, and are particularly prominent in 

 those species in which the adhesive function, if it exists at 

 all, is feeble and rarely exercised. 



The integuments and muscular coats appear to have 

 a much greater density than in any of the previous families, 

 and the movements of the animals manifest a higher degree 

 of vigour, and even of intelligence. The tentacles are 

 generally short, thick, and conical. 



The typical and sub-typical genera — Bunodes and Tealia 

 — appear to be represented by species which are scattered 

 over the seas of the world, and are for the most part 

 littoral: the genera Cystactis and Echinactis are confined 

 to the southern hemisphere : and the aberrant genera, JBolo- 

 cera, Hormathia, and Stompkia, inhabit the deep water of 

 the British and Norwegian seas. 



