﻿DISCOVERIES AND COLLECTIONS. 13 



Galicia. — The third oldest European cyead is the type of Cycadeoidea {Rau- 

 merid) Reichenbachiana (Goppert) Capellini & Solms. This is a very large trunk 

 found at Lednice, near Wieliczka, in Galieia, which, after being figured by Knorr in 

 1755, was later described by Walch in his well-known work (169 a). It is conserved 

 in the Royal Geological Museum at Dresden, and for a long time remained the largest 

 of known fossil cycads, but is now far exceeded in this respect by certain Yale and 

 United States National Museum specimens. An excellent figure of this trunk is 

 given by Ward (176, plate lix), who has recently further added an extended account 

 of its interesting history and its macroscopic features (180). As Professor Ward has 

 very justly observed, there can be no question that its microscopic structure is con- 

 served and would richly reward study. It evidently bears numerous ovulate cones, 

 and staminate disks are either present in young stages of growth or were matured 

 just previous to fossilization. Resemblance to the larger of the southern Black 

 Hills specimens is from every point of view very close indeed. 



France. — In France cycadean trunk discovery has extended over the past cen- 

 tury, although, as in Italy, exact investigation of the material has been confined to 

 the last dozen years. 



The type of Cycadeoidea micromyela, discovered at Tournay-sur-Odon, Calva- 

 dos, about 1837, probably belongs to strata of the Middle Lias. It was described 

 in 1869 by Moriere; but not until recently was it made the subject of a very com- 

 plete microscopic examination by Lignier (84). Being a trunk that had evidently 

 been macerated before silicification, and with structure quite well preserved but not 

 differentiated, Professor Lignier successfully resorted to staining the thin sections 

 with vesuvine by a method of his own, described several years since (79). The fine 

 results obtained are hence of more than ordinary interest. 



A far more notable specimen, however, is the superbly preserved ovulate cone, 

 Cycadeoidea (Bennettites) Moriere i (Sap. et Mar., 1881). This was found in 1865 

 by Moriere in the Oxfordian of Vaches-Noire by the cliffs of Villers-sur-Mer, Calva- 

 dos, Normandy; but not until nearly thirty years later was it made the subject of a 

 thorough microscopic investigation by Lignier (82). The fossilizing material is 

 iron carbonate, and the tissue differentiation is of rare beauty. The writer has been 

 happy to secure from Professor Lignier for the Yale Museum six representative 

 thin sections cut from the original type in exchange for sections cut from Black 

 Hills cycads. 



In this connection may be mentioned the English specimens from the York- 

 shire coast now in the Paris Museum. As becomes evident from the present studies, 

 these fine fossil casts of isolated Williamsonia fruits, figured and described by Saporta 

 in 1891 (125), constitute a highly important series. Many of these now prove to 

 be so closely related to some of the Black Hills forms that they constitute well nigh 

 as important a fund of knowledge concerning the distribution of the Mesozoic 

 cycadales as they might if their trunks as well had been preserved. Thus we clearly 

 see that the fortunate knowledge we at last possess concerning the exact micro- 

 scopic structure of so many silicified and ferrized cycadean forms in various stages 



