78 Ward Fossil Cycadean Trunks of North America. 



Platylepis, in which the leaf -bases are persistent, seem also to be 

 absent. I have therefore made a careful revision of the genus 

 Cycadeoidea condensing into it the Bolbopodium and Clathropo- 

 dium of Saporta, and also referring to it all the species of Ben- 

 nettites of Carruthers. The greater part of all this had already 

 been done by the recent researches of Count Solms-Laubach, and 

 it only remained to pick up a few of the outlying forms that did 

 not come within the purview of his studies. If his results are 

 accepted at all there is no logical stopping-place short of the 

 embodiment of all these forms under the genus Cycadeoidea. It 

 is of course possible that future exhaustive study, especially from 

 the standpoint of internal structure, may result in the subdivi 

 sion of this genus into several. But at present the tendency is 

 toward consolidation, and a great uniformity is found in both the 

 external and internal characteristics of the extinct Cycadaceae. 



In a much more extended paper, which is now in preparation ? 

 I hope to bring out the special characteristics of our American 

 forms and to compare them with those of the Old World. Sec 

 tions are now being made of some of the specimens from the 

 Black Hills, and it is proposed to illustrate the internal structure 

 of these specimens as fully as possible. Prof. F. H. Knowlton 

 has consented to superintend the work of section cutting and to 

 prepare the part of this paper relating to internal structure. 

 Thus far we are in possession only of the Black Hills material 

 and the single specimen of C. miraMlis described by Lesquereux 

 in his Tertiary Flora. This specimen was loaned several years 

 ago to count Solms who made sections of it and prepared several 

 slides, duplicates of which he sent back with the specimen. I 

 also have a somewhat careful description of what he found, not 

 only in letters received from him, but also in his memoir on the 

 fossil cycads of Italy. Should other material come into our 

 hands it will also be treated from the same standpoint. 



I have endeavored in all cases to conform strictly to the law 

 of priority now so rigidly enforced in all departments of natural 

 history. I have been careful to give dates, so that the reasons for 

 the deviations from the more current designations may be clear. 

 If I have made any mistakes in this respect I shall be very thank 

 ful to receive corrections before the final paper is completed, this 

 being one of the objects of this preliminary one. 



