200 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



There are two specimens of this species in the Yale collection, namely, 

 Nos. 21 and 50, the former of which is a fine, nearly perfect trunk, large 

 and handsome, weighing 92,76 kg. I was at first inclined to regard 

 them as belonging to G. minnel'ahtemis on account of the general 

 resemblance of the external surface; but this obviously can not be 

 done, because these trunks are unbranched and symmetrical in form. 

 In this respect they approach C. dacotensis and C. colossaUs, but here the 

 surface differs completely. JSTo forms intermediate in either of these 

 respects occur in either collection, and there is no escai)e from regarding 

 these two trunks as constituting a new sjiecies. 



I have named the species for Mr. Henry F. Wells, who obtained these 

 and nearly all the rest of the Yale collection, and from whom Professor 

 Marsh purchased them. He may therefore be regarded as the collector, 

 which, under the approved rules for naming species, requires the use 

 of the genitive form. 



CYCADEOIDEA MINNEKAHTENSIS, new species. 



Trunks gigantic, much branched and irregular in form, the type and 

 only perfect specimen known weighing 219.09 kg., 74 cm. high, 50 cm. in 

 diameter exclusive of branches, 79 cm. across at maximum spread of 

 branches, 150 cm. in girth, light brown or chestnut colored, smooth on 

 the outer surface presenting the appearance of having been molded in 

 plastic clay, moderately heavy; branches very large forming conical 

 protuberances ju'ojecting from the middle portion of the trunk giving 

 it a winged appearance, otlier branches proceeding from other i^arts, 

 especially below, composite, that is, the main branches or primary axes 

 having lesser or secondary branches; prominent terminal buds, some- 

 times themselves compound, ou all the branches, often very perfect 

 with a sort of neck; organs of the armor declined over most of the 

 surface; i^hyllotaxy obscure and not traceable; leaf scars subrhombic 

 to nearly rhombic, averaging 22 mm. wide by 10 mm. high, the unusual 

 vertical narrowness perhaps due to compression, very variable, how- 

 ever, in all respects, those on the lesser branches smaller, usually 

 empty and striate within; rameutaceous interstices usually thick, 5 

 to 15 mm., firm and fine-grained, smooth and polished but somewhat 

 undulating, the edges of the scars sharp, always without signs of sub- 

 division; reproductive organs numerous, simulating the small branches, 

 the central part preserved but heterogeneous, showing scars and mark- 

 ings of the essential organs, varying from 12 to 50 mm. in diameter, 

 surrounded by small involucral bract scars; armor about cm. thick, 

 separated from the underlying tissues by a thin porous layer; cortical 

 parenchyma about 5 cm. tliick; fibrovascular zone 8 cm. thick without 

 visible subdivision into rings; medulla not clearly shown, and internal 

 structure generally more or less conjectural. 



The remarkably fine but weird and anomalous specimen upon which the 

 above description is almost wholly based was found by our party lying 

 partly buried in the grouml, in the same place where the other trunks 



