ol6 MKSOZOIC FLORAS OF rMTKD STATFS. 



hut most of lluMU moir oi' less fi'agmoiitaiy. The value of these fragments 

 to scienee is, however, very gi'(>at. and on my retui'ii I succeeded in inchie- 

 in<; Professor Marsh to authorize Mr. Wells to finish the work he had 

 begun In- gathering them all up and shipping them to New Haven. This 

 was done and the specimens arrived early in 1899. Meantime, in Xovem- 

 l)er, 1898, I went for the fourth time to Xew Haven and d(>termined a col- 

 lection of 44 specimens that Mr. Wells had sent since my last visit in June. 

 It was then that I explained to Professor Marsh what I had seen in Octol)er 

 and that he instructed Mr. Wells to send him all the c^'cads he could find. 

 Knowing that these were coming I purposely left the work unfinished, 

 certain that the new material would not only af^'ord a much l^roader I)asis 

 for the study of the collections, but would complete many of the imperfect 

 tnmks by supplying the missing parts. In this I was not mistaken. The 

 great collection happily reached New Haven and was impacked a month or 

 more ])efore the fatal illness of Professor Marsh, so that he was al)le to 

 contemplate it in all its magnitude. 



As stated in my paper on the flora of the Black Hills (p. 623), Pro- 

 fessor Marsh had persuaded Mr. George R. Wieland to undertake the 

 microscopic study of the fossil cycads in the Yale Museum, and he Ijegan his 

 investigations near the beginning of 1899. He commenced publishing in 

 March of that j'ear, and foiu' of his contributions, all based on the Black 

 Hills material, have thus far appeared." The series will doubtless l)e 

 continued, and a monograph is announced. The work on the internal 

 structure of American fossil cycads is thus fairly begun, the results are 

 already highly important, and the possibilities seem practically unlimited. 

 On May 1, 1900, at the request of Dr. C. E. Beecher, I again visited New 

 Ha\'en and resumed the work of elaborating the cyead material. The 

 collections now numbered over 700 specimens, l:)ut more than half of these 

 consisted of the smaller fragments gathered from the field by Mr. Wells, 

 who had previously neglected to send them, not supposing them worth 

 preserving. I had emphasized \hv\v importance to Professor Marsh, and, 

 as above stated, he had ordered their shipment. None of them are wholly 

 without scientific value, especially in the study of tlieir internal structui'o, 

 and many of them were found to be the missing parts of broken trunks 



" A study of some .Vnierican Fossil Cycads, l)_y Ocorge R. Wieland. I't. I. Am. .Jur. Sci., 4tli ser.. Vol. 

 VII, May, 1.S99, pp. 219-220, pi. ii-iv. Pt. II, ibid., Apiil, 1S99, pp. .30.i-3()8, pi. vii; Pi. Ill, ibid., May, 1899, 

 pp. .383-.391, pi. viii-x: Pt. IV, ibid., Vol. XI, .lune, niOl. pp. 123-130. ♦ 



