4(.l6 MESOZOK' FLORAS OF INITFI) STATES. 



clay lieds. but always out of a more or less sandy material, usually from 

 sand beds or beds of ferruginous arenaceous shale or lithified sand. 



The entire collection of cycads in the possession of the Woman's 

 College was shipped to the National Museum in April, 189-i, and work 

 was begun on them soon aftei'. 



Preparatory to my general studies in the cycads of the United States 

 I prepared during the early part of 1894 a revision of the genus Cycadeoi- 

 dea, to which the American forms thus far found all l)elonged." This 

 paper went to press before I felt authorized to make any statement of 

 Mr. Bibbins's discoveries, and I could only mention those of Tyson and 

 give the synonymy of the one species thus far iianuMl and called Tysonia 

 marylandica by Fontaine, which becomes Cycndeoidca marylandicu in 

 the revision of Capellini and Solms-Laubach. 



In July, 1894, I commenced to work in earnest on the Maryland 

 cycads, describing the material. Photographs were made and sections 

 cut. Several of the smaller trunks were cut through the center and the 

 fresh faces polished. This part of the work was directed l)v Dr. F. H. 

 Knowlton. 



Mr. Bibbins's method of collecting the cycads, as has been seen, 

 was unique and might be regarded by some as unscientific; })ut it was 

 effective. I was much struck with his method as peculiarly adapted 

 to such a case, and I regarded it as from this point of view eminently 

 scientific. It was to make this method known and to give a brief historical 

 account of the discovery of cycads in the Maryland heda that I prepared 

 a paper'' on the subject, in which I described Mr. Bibbins's method as 

 follows : 



Instead of undertaking a hopele.ss and aimless quest, as has been done by 

 geologists and collectors in the past, he cliose to avail himself of the knowledge of 

 the inhabitants of the districts in which the cycads were beheved to occur. Sup- 

 ported by the Woman's College, which furnislicd liim the means of transportation 

 and met the small expense of his work, inchiding an occasional pour hoire to some 

 needy farmer or miner who possessed information of great value, and usually gave 

 it freely, he proceeded to visit the houses of the native population, and placing 

 himself on a level with their powers of understanding, he was able to interrogate a 



"Fossil cycadean trunks of Nortli Ainerira, with a revision of tin' genus Cvcadcoidi'n IJmkland: Proe. 

 Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. IX, April 9, 1894, pp. 7.5-88. 



''Recent discoveries of cycadean trunks in the Potomac forniation of .Maryliirid: Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 

 Vol. XXI, New York, July, 1894, pp. 291-299. 



