﻿46 INTRODUCTORY. 



its penducle in the armor. Necessarily frequent remounting of a trunk was required 

 for the cutting out of fruits at much varied angles. Before cutting, a cast of each 

 fruit was taken, and the summit was then carefully embedded in " Meyer's stone 

 cement," or the Meyerische Steinkitte, manufactured at Freiburg i. B. About three 

 parts of admixed pulverized cycad were used to one of cement. In from four days 

 to a week the cement set solidly, thus leaving the summit of the fruit smooth and 

 firm, and avoiding the danger to the core caused by the breaking away of loose 

 pieces of bracts and leaf bases, with resultant wedging or heavy jarring of the drill, 

 while revolving at a rate of several hundred revolutions per minute. When thus 

 cemented and properly set, the summit was surrounded by a low clay wall and 

 quite covered with bits of chilled steel, the active drilling agent used. Carborundum 

 would also doubtless do, but a large quantity would be needed. In drilling, a 

 continuous even and firm but not heavy pressure is best. In other words, in addi- 

 tion to well-turned and well-set drills, the process requires time and constant watch- 

 ing, and can not be safely hurried, although a fairly rapid, if steady, revolution of 

 the drill is best. 



In the manner just described a dozen cylindrical cores, varying from 4 to 8 cm. 

 in diameter by from 5 to 15 cm. in length, and extending into the medulla, were 

 cut from various positions all the way from the base to the summit of Yale cycad 

 trunk No. 214 (cf. figure 14). These cores were next broken out smooth and deep 

 by means of small steel wedges dropped down to the bottom of the drill-cut and 

 then forced by means of sharp mallet-blows against the core by a thin-bladed chisel. 

 Necessarily the point of wedging and the method will vary a little in each succes- 

 sive instance. It scarcely need be again emphasized that constant inspection, good 

 judgment, and skill are required in such a process, else much damage to both fruit 

 and trunk may ensue. 



The next step was to cement together again with the stone cement any frac- 

 tures of the fruit originally present and partly developed, and also to fill up uneven 

 places, or strengthen portions likely to break away in cutting. Following this the 

 core was embedded in plaster in position for either a longitudinal saw-cut, as always 

 made in a radial longitudinal direction to the trunk itself, or else for a series of 

 transverse sections. Secondly, supplementary sections were made from portions of 

 the fruit ; or else, after the longitudinal sections ivere cut, the resulting halves of the 

 corezvere cemented together again in their original position, as recorded by means oj 

 a mold, and the secondary series of transverse sections then made with the loss of the 

 sau>-cuts only. There has also been employed the reverse process of making trans- 

 verse sections first, and then cementing together the resulting cylindrical segments 

 and making a longitudinal section. The cement-filled saw-cuts which, of course, 

 traverse the latter accurately indicate the position of the transverse sections. 



It is believed that this is the first time in the study of any plants that virtually 

 complete transverse and longitudinal sections have been made from one and the same 

 fructification. Whilst these complete complementary sections are of great beauty, 

 and desirable in a large series, it of course may answer ordinary purposes to first make 

 a longitudinal saw-cut, and then a longitudinal section from the best or else the 



