27O REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



ing the beds in which vertebrate fossils occur, with the view of attempting 

 an interpretation of the conditions under which the vertebrate animals of the 

 Permian or Permo-Carboniferous period lived and developed. Considerable 

 time has also been spent, in collaboration with Dr. S. W. Williston, of the 

 University of Chicago, in preparing the manuscript of a book on the "Permian 

 Vertebrates of New Mexico." This manuscript will be completed in the fall 

 of 1912 and submitted to the Carnegie Institution of Washington for publi- 

 cation. This work will form an additional volume to the series of mono- 

 graphs, publications Nos. 55, 146, and 147, on the Permian vertebrate life of 

 North America. 



The field work now on hand is in preparation for the publication of a 

 volume dealing with the conditions of vertebrate life in the Permian or 

 Permo-Carboniferous period, the character of the deposits, the paleogeogra- 

 phy of North America at the time, etc. 



Hay, Oliver P., U. S. National Museum, Washington, District of Columbia. 

 Grant No. yj^, allotted December 15, 191 1. Investigation of the verte- 

 brate paleontology of the Pleistocene epoch. $3,000 



Since the beginning of the year Professor Hay's time has been devoted 

 principally to studying the Pleistocene mammalian materials in the U. S. 

 National Museum. About five weeks of July and August were spent in the 

 museums of Philadelphia, New Haven, and New York, examining and taking 

 notes and photographs of the materials seen there. A paper was recently 

 published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections in which the author 

 attempted to distinguish the faunas which succeeded one another during the 

 Pleistocene (vol. 59, pp. 1-16, 10 figures). 



Wieland, G. R., Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Grant No. 774, 

 allotted December 15, 191 1. Continuation of investigations on fossil 

 cycads. (For previous reports see Year Books Nos. 2-4, 6-9.) $3,000 



The first half of the current year has been largely devoted to extending 

 the series of thin sections of fossil cycads. Among the trunks sectioned 

 is one that may perhaps rank as the most striking plant of any kind in full 

 fruit ever recovered — a trunk bearing between 500 and 600 ovulate cones, 

 mostly complete and with well-conserved dicotyledonous embryos. This 

 remarkable example of a monocarpic trunk was discovered by Dr. Darton, 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey, and later turned over to me by the officials 

 of the U. S. National Museum for study and record. 



The results of exploration in Oaxaca noted in a previous report are now 

 in course of publication by the Institute Geologico de Mexico in the form of 

 an extended memoir on the Liassic flora of the Mixteca Alta. 



The general plan of work outlined in preceding reports and the things 

 proposed or suggested as desirable to be done remain unchanged. The 

 study of the silicified cycads has aided much in establishing a new basis from 



