ASTRjEACEA. BUNODIDjB. 



THE GLAUCOUS PIMPLET. 



Bunodes thallia. 

 Plate IV. Figs. 5, 6. 



Specific Character. Warts sub- equal, vertically remote, unicclorous. 



Bunodes thallia. Gosse, Annals X. H. Ser. 2, xiv. 283 : Tenby, 361 ; pi. 



xxiii. fig. c : Linn. Trans. xxi. 274. Annals N. H. 



Ser. 3, L 417. 

 Cereus Thalia. ILxxe Edwards, Hist. CoralL i. 266. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



FOBM. 



Base. Adherent to rocks ; considerably exceeding column. 



Column. A rounded button in contraction, pillar-lite in extension, 

 rising to full twice the diameter. Surface covered with numerous (about 

 thirty-six) vertical rows of sub-equal prominent warts, which are separated, 

 in moderate extension, both laterally and vertically, by interspaces of about 

 equal width, in which the skin is irregularly corrugated. The warts are 

 about twenty -five in each row, and reach from the base to the margin, 

 which is serrated with the elongated topmost warts of all the rows. They 

 are strongly adhesive, and are occasionally drawn out to the length of a 

 line, before they yield their hold. Substance firmly fleshy. 



Disk. Flat, or slightly concave ; radii indistinct. 



Tentacles. Sub-marginal, set in four rows; 6, 6, 12, 24 = 48 : — the first 

 three rows are, however, so nearly equidistant from the centre that, on a 

 cursory inspection, there appear but two rows altogether. They are sub- 

 equal, thick, obtuse, about half as long as the diameter of the column ; and 

 are commonly spread horizontally, or overarching outwards. 



Mouth. Set on a prominent cone. 



Colour. 



Column. Pale bluish or greyish green, with dark warts. 



Bisk. A many-rayed star of yellow rays on a blackish ground, produced 

 in the following manner. The radii are blackish, each marked with a 

 central spindle-shaped line of yellow ; in the primary and secc ndary radii, 



o 2 



