HALONIA. 



83 



"The principal questions to answer are, first — What were the processes? And, 

 second, What were the projections ? If the processes were leaves, as it appears probable, 

 then the projections will have been either the bases of old or the points of rudimentary 

 branches ; and in that case the affinity of the fossil will be nearest with Halonia. (See 

 the next article.) But if we suppose the processes to have been analogous to the raraenta 

 of Ferns, then the projections may be considered to be of the same nature as those we find 

 in Siigmaria, where they are plainly the bases of leaves. A great objection to this view is, 

 that the arrangement of tlie spots left by the processes is too regular for ramenta. 



" The only branch that is seen in the specimen will not enable a botanist to say 

 whether the mode of ramification was dichotomous or alternate. If the projections are 

 the bases of leaves, it may have been dichotomous ; but, if they are rudimentary branches, 

 it must have been alternate. 



" Under these cirumstances we are forced to leave the specimen in a state of uncer- 

 tainty, which is unfortunately too common in this science." 



h. ''Halonia gracilis (page 8G). — From the Coal-measures of Low Moor in 

 Yorkshire. 



" At first sight one would be disposed to consider this a Lepidodendron, to which its 

 rhomboidal scars give it strong resemblance. But if we consider Lepidodendron as an 

 extinct form of Lycopodiacece, w^e must limit it to those fossils in which the mode of 

 branching was dichotomous, for no other kind of ramification is met with in recent 

 Lycopodiacece. 



" Here, however, it is plain, from numerous scars of branches, that they were arranged 

 in an alternate manner round a common elongating axis, after the plan as now obtains in 

 the Spruce Fir. In fact, if we compare this to a vigorous branch of a Spruce Fir, one 

 year old, we shall find the resemblance very striking even in the scars of the leaves. For 

 this reason, and for the sake of rendering our notions of the extinct Flora as definite as 

 we can, the genus Halonia is proposed, to comprehend all those fossils in which the 

 surface of Lepidodendron is added, with the mode of branching of certain Conifera, and 

 which, it is therefore to be inferred, were of a nature analogous to the latter." 



c. "Halonia regularis (vol. iii, p. 228). — Fig. 1, from Halliwell Stone Quarry, near 

 Bolton. Fig. 2, from Peel Stone Quarry, near Bolton, both communicated by Mr. Dawes, 

 of Bolton. 



" These are most remarkable specimens of this curious genus. They are quite distinct, 

 both in dimensions and in the regularity with which their tubercles are arranged, from 

 either of the species previously figured.'' 



§ 2. Mr. Richard Brown, in a description of an upright Lepidodendron with 

 Stigmaria roots, in the roof of the Sydney Main- coal, in the Island of Cape Breton, states,^ 

 " Since I forwarded to the Society a description of the Sydney Sigillaria, about twelve 



1 ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. of London,' vol. iv, p. 46, 1847. 



