﻿264 AMERICAN FOSSIL CVCADS. 



Plate VII. Cycadeoidca Marshiana. X 0.2. Weight 205.3 kg. 



Lateral and superior view of trunk 164. The lettering corresponds in both photo- 

 graphs, and the upper arrow in the lower photograph shows the direction of the lateral 

 view. The main original central stem of the group is that with the largest summit (e) at 

 the left hand of lower photograph. Basal view in plate vm, with the several branches 

 lettered as here. (For the interesting history of this specimen see Chapter II.) 



The fructifications of the present specimen are numerous, but very small, and the leaf- 

 base spirals correspondingly regular. When fossilized this beautiful branching cycad was 

 about to pass from the pulcherrima stage into active and probably culminant fructification. 

 (The arrow marked VIII shows the direction of the lateral view given in the upper photo- 

 graph of plate vm.) 



Plate VIII. Cycadeoidca Marshiana. X 0.2. Weight 205.3 kg. 



Lateral and basal view of trunk 164, etc., shown in superior view in the preceding 

 plate VII. Upper photograph the lateral, lower photograph the basal view. No portions 

 of the roots remain, and the woody cylinder of the main or parent stem is plainly outlined 

 at x in the center of the lower photograph. By comparison with the similarly lettered 

 plate VII the approximate order in which the seven lateral branches grew out in nearly 

 prone position on the surface of the ground may be readily verified as that given in the 

 brief description in Chapter II. 



Plate IX. Stages of Fruit Production in Branching Species of Cycadeoidca. 

 illustrated by trunks with exceptionally distinct surface features. 



Photograph I. — Cycadeoidca Marshiana. X 0.25. View of lateral superior surface of 

 three branches attached to a portion of the parent stem. Shows all that was secured of a 

 plant which must have branched in quite identically the same manner as that shown in 

 plates vii and vm. The bract scars marking numerous quite equally developed but very small 

 and yet young lateral fructifications are plainly visible in the photograph, where upwards of 

 forty small axes may be counted on the branch to the right alone. The regularity of the 

 leaf-base spirals is still striking, the present specimen being one of the very handsomest 

 examples of the pulcherrima stage ever recovered. Whether these branching Marsbianas 

 were typically bisexual, monoecious, or partially dicecious has not yet been fully determined, 

 as explained in Chapter VIII. 



Photograph 2. — Cycadeoidca supcrba (type). X 0.25. These two adjacent lateral 

 branches constitute the incomplete type specimens originally described. They are only 

 closely appressed and not directly connected with each other, but the xylem cylinder of each 

 branches off from that of the same central parent stent. In the succeeding plates x and xi 

 the entire plant is shown as mounted after the collection of the parent stem and other missing 

 parts by the writer. Trunks c and d are similarly lettered in plates x and xi. The present 

 lateral view shows the wonderfully distinct surface characters and a comparatively small 

 number of strobili of considerable size, doubtless the first borne by these branches. It was 

 determined that some of these strobili were ovulate, and certainly some are bisporangiate, 

 though all may have been so, the disk having been later shed and the bracts again closing 

 in over the ovulate cones. (For a discussion of these possibilities see Chapter VIII.) 



Plate X. Cycadeoidca supcrba. X 0.25. Weight 235 kg. 



Oblique view of type, complete. In the preceding plate ix are shown the two branches 

 constituting the portion of this plant originally secured and described. The missing parts 

 found subsequently by the author, as related in Chapter II, consist in the central stem, a 

 large lateral branch, and many fragments, in all more than half the bulk of the entire plant. 



As here seen the parent stem projects above the lateral branches and ends in a shallow 

 somewhat oblongate "crow's nest." The terminal buds of the branches are well conserved, 

 but rounded and smooth, owing to the large quantity of apical ramentum. (Each of the 

 branches is lettered to correspond with plates ix and xi.) 



