Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixii. (191 7) vii. 



1916, he expressed his pleasure at learning: that we were willing 

 to revise and prepare his MSS. for publication. 



The war and pressure of other engagements still further 

 postponed publication and in the interval Halkyard has died. 

 The publication of his notes and the completion of his work 

 therefore may be regarded as a heart-felt tribute to the memory 

 of an old and esteemed correspondent. 



The long interval which has elapsed since Halkyard wrote 

 the existing draft of his MS. has rendered many alterations 

 in his nomenclature necessary. It is not easy to understand 

 why he should have ceased his labours when they were so near 

 completion. We know that he was in active correspondence 

 with Frederick Chapman, and the late Fortescue W. Millett, 

 and if he felt himself unable to complete the task he might 

 have sought assistance and collaboration, instead of giving his 

 MSS, drawings, and specimens, to the Museum where, had 

 Professor Hickson not kept them in mind and aroused the 

 interest of Heron-Allen in 1915, they might easily have re- 

 mained unnoticed until their scientific value had been lost. The 

 plates have been prepared with all Halkyard's skill, and he was 

 a fine draughtsman, and although the MS was far from ready 

 for publication, being more or less in the shape of a rough draft, 

 and imperfectly arranged, it was in such a condition that a few 

 weeks of additional work would have sufficed for him to com- 

 plete the long task, and saved us the many months which we 

 have found necessary to pick up the scattered and unfamiliar 

 threads. Besides the congenial labour of editing Halkyard's 

 draft, we have examined a considerable quantity of his un- 

 touched material, which has resulted in the addition of some 

 thirty-three species to his list as he left it. Even as now pub- 

 lished we are conscious of many shortcomings, especially in the 

 synonymies and the arrangement of species, but to have set 

 these in the accepted order would have necessitated the re- 

 writing of the entire paper. As it is, there are a few of Halk- 

 yard's species which we have been unable to trace at all. The 

 specimens have disappeared from the type slides and cannot be 

 found- Whether they have become lost, or whether he altered 

 the name of the specimen without destroying his original notes, 

 we cannot say. This theory appears very possible as there are 

 many instances in which he changed his views on the identity 

 of his specimens during the preparation of his MS. Perhaps 

 this feeling of indecision as to the identity of specimens may 

 have been responsible for Halkyard's abandonment of his work. 

 Judging from some of his notes and correspondence he seems 

 to have gradually lost all sense of the close affinity of rhizo- 



