346 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 19, 



Several of the Schaerbeek fruits are drilled by Teredines, and have 

 the pericarp silicified. 



NiPADiTES LANCEOLATUS, Bowcrbank, pi. 3. fig. 7, 8, and N. cla- 

 VATUS?, Bowerbank, pi. 3. figs. 4, 5, 6. 



[PL XIX. figs. 3, 4.] 



Fig. 3 represents a fruit split open, exposing the cast of the peri- 

 carp («) and a cast of the nut, or of its cavity (6), bearing an im- 

 pression of the endocarp. 



Fig. 4 is a lateral or edge-view of this same body or nucleus, re- 

 moved from the pericarp, and shows the point of attachment at its 

 base. There are no remains of vegetable tissue in any part of the 

 specimen. 



NiPADiTES Parkinsonis, Bowcrbauk, sp. (pi. 4). 

 Cocos Parkinsonis, Ad. Brongn., Prodrome, p. 121. 



[PI. XIX. figs. 5, 6.] 



Length of Schaerbeek specimen 1 inch^^ths, breadth 1 inchy^o^th. 



Fig. 5 a. — Cast of the outside of the pericarp. 



Fig. 5 b. — Nucleus or cast of the endocarp or inner surface of the 

 pericarp. In this, as in other specimens, the nucleus resembles the 

 seed in form, but is without trace of tissue. 



Fig. 6. — Another view of the nucleus, showing the opening where 

 the sand entered at the base. 



All the above figures are reduced to half the length of the fossils. 



HoNiTjM Bruxelltense. 

 [PI. XX. fig. 1-6 5.] 



I have given to this curious fossil from Schaerbeek, which I am 

 inclined to consider a Sponge, the generic name of Honium, from its 

 discoverer Captain Le Hon. Many conjectures have been formed by 

 palaeontologists as to its true nature, some having suggested that it 

 may prove to be part of the spadix or catkin of some cycadeous plant, 

 as, in their opinion, it was composed chiefly of cellular tissue. But 

 Dr. Hooker tells me he has never seen in any plant such reticulated 

 structure as is exhibited in part of the Honium, so that he is opposed 

 to the opinion of its being of vegetable origin. It may perhaps be 

 allied to a Sponge, as it contains many spines which agree in form 

 with the spicula of Sponges : but we can scarcely be sure that such 

 spines really belong to the fossil, because both specimens of the Ho- 

 nium figured in PL XX. contain many spines of an Echinoderm, which 

 are certainly foreign to the body itself, and many of which may be 

 seen scattered through the rock, although nowhere in such thick 

 clusters as on one of the specimens of Honium. A small portion of 

 the cast of the test of a Spatangus, however, is preserved in one of 

 the stones containing Nipadites, from the same stratum at Schaerbeek, 

 showing the co-existence of Echinoderms with the Honium. 



The convergence of the lines of pits in the reticulation towards 



