N0.1141. FOSSIL CYCADS FROM THE BLACK HILLS— WARD. 201 



had been gatlierecl. It was overgrown with lichens in many iilaces, 

 and had been regarded so nncouth as not to be worth transporting to 

 Hot Springs. I arranged with Messrs. Payne and Cole to have it 

 shipped to Washington, and it arrived in due time in safety. It holds 

 the fourth rank as to size aud weight, but differs from all others in so 

 many respects that a comparison with any is difficult. Specifically it 

 approaches most closely to C. pnlcherrima, but lacks all the symmetry 

 and definiteuess of that form. It is only in the fact tiiat both are very 

 branching, especially around the midcjle part of the trunk, that they 

 have an external resemblance. 



The specimen shows a fine terminal bud at the apex of the principal 

 trunk and several others on the other branches. Except near the 

 summits of the several branches the leaf scars and other organs of the 

 armor are decidedly descending, but on the main branch or trunk, 

 some distance above all the lateral branches, there is a sharp line 

 separating the descending from the ascending scars above. This 

 feature I have only seen elsewhere in G. gouchvriana from Maryland. 

 The only other specimen in the collection that could with any pro- 

 l)riety be included under this specific head is the small trunk picked 

 up at the same time and place and numbered 19. This may represent a 

 very young state of this species with all the characters in miniature and 

 devoid of rei)roductive organs. It is branched much in the same way, 

 longitudinally compressed, lacks a little of the base and part of one 

 side below, but for purposes of descrii^tion is practically complete. 

 The entire trunk was only 18 or 20 cm. high, 14 or 15 cm. in its longer 

 and 7 or 8 cm. in its shorter diameter, with a maximum girth of 30 cm. 

 Its present weight is 1.81 kg. The dimensions are therefore less than 

 one-fourth, and the weight is less than one-twelfth of the large trunk. 

 It might even have been wholly subterranean as in the living Zaniia 

 int('<jrlfoUa. 



Among the fragments in the Yale collection 1 found eight that belong 

 to these species, and as the National Museum type is nearly ])erfect, 

 these add somewhat to our knowledge of the inner parts of the trunk. 

 These specimens are numbered 14, 22, 24, 32, 41, 71-72, 83, and 80. 

 They consist chiefiy of branches torn away from hirge trunks, and 

 several of them may have belonged to the same trunk. Some of them 

 may be found to fit together, but as they were lying about in different 

 rooms and even on diflterent floors of the Peabody Museum, it was 

 imiwssiblc for me to correlate them. Certain ones, us No. 14, consist of 

 a mere gnarl of branches, and most of them are proliferous or com])os- 

 ite, the branches olten having fine, sometimes compound, terminal buds. 



CYCADEOIDEA PULCHERRIMA, new species. 



Trunks large (38 cm. high, 4 cm. in diameter, and 130 cm. in girth in 

 the only complete specimen known), short ellipsoidal or subspherical, of 

 a light ash color and moderately heavy, bearing numerous large, short 

 branches at and below the center all round, forming conical piotuber- 



