254 WARD 



would not have been appropriate to include the Wyoming cycads 

 in that paper, and I so informed Professor Marsh. 



Professor Marsh promptly made public all the information he 

 had on this subject in the ' Postscript ' to his paper on ' The 

 Jurassic Formation on the Atlantic Coast — Supplement ' which 

 he had read before the National Academy of Sciences on Nov- 

 ember i8, 1897. This 'Supplement' with the 'Postscript' 

 appeared in the American Journal of Science for August, 1898 

 (4th Ser., Vol. VI, pp. 105-115), and also in Science of 

 August 5, 1898 (NS., Vol. VIII, pp. 145-154). 



The next reminder I had of the existence of these vegetable 

 fossils was through Dr. F. H. Knowlton, who had received a 

 letter from Professor Wilbur C. Knight, State Geologist of 

 Wyoming, dated September 3, 1898, in which he said : " Re- 

 cently my assistant made a very rich find of Jurassic cycads. 

 Would you care to describe the species, or possibly several 

 species ? I have some fine ones. One on my desk is 8x6X12 

 inches or larger." 



Dr. Knowlton showed me this letter and, knowing that it 

 referred to the same locality as that from which Professor Marsh 

 had obtained his specimens, I immediately wrote to Professor 

 Knight and offered to describe the specimens if he could find 

 a way of placing them in my hands. As a result a negotiation 

 was entered into with the authorities of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum as to conditions on which the material would 

 be received, but it was not until the i6th of March, 1899, that 

 the collection finally arrived. 



STRATIGRAPHIC POSITION. 



In a letter from Professor Knight, dated October 18, 1898, 

 in answer to questions I had asked him relative to the age of 

 the beds, he says : 



♦• There is no question as to the horizon of the find, it is in the 

 Jurassic fresh water beds, and near the bottom. In the locality 

 where this bed has been opened there is a typical Jurassic ex- 

 posure, and the fresh water and marine beds can be sectioned 

 to a foot. I have not visited the cycad beds yet but I am well 

 acquainted with the locality and have made rough sections 

 many times. In my opinion it is a very excellent find and is 



