FOSSIL CYC ADS FROM THE BLACK HILLS— WARD. 205 



tiuction which all tlie numerous specimens of both species do not tend 

 in Jiuy way to obliterate. In its branching habit it approaches C. min- 

 nckahfensLs and (K mdrsliiana, but the external characters persistently 

 keep it separate Ironi either. In color it somewhat resembles the 

 Ibrnier, but this is all that can be said. 



CYCADEOIDEA McBRIDEI, new species. 



IX'Xi. /ii-uiieltitca dacoiensis McBimde, in part, Aiiiciiciin (Jeolofjist, XII, ]).L'li), ])1. \i, 

 fig, 2; IJull. Liib. Nat., Hist. State Univ. of Iowa, II, No. 4, pp. :{91, 392, pi. 

 XII, fig. 2. 



18!ll. Cycadeoidea dacuieniiix (McIiKiDE) Waud, in part, I'roi'. Uiol. Soc, Wasiiing- 

 toii, IX, p. 86. 



Trunks large and very short (li5 to 40 cm. high, LT) to 75 cm. in diam- 

 eter with a girth of 80 to 250 cm.), more or less laterally or longitudi- 

 nally compressed, well silicilied but somewhat porous or spongy and 

 therefore only moderately heavy, reddish brown in color, occasionally 

 bearing small secondary axes which only slightly i)roject; organs of the 

 armor variable but usually radial in direction ; leaf scars arranged in 

 spiral rows intersecting each other at various angles, usually forming 

 an angle with the axis in either direction of from 40'^ to 55"; scars 

 subrhombic or lozenge shaped, the distance between the lateral angles 

 varying from L*li mm. to 35 mm., that between the vertical angles vary- 

 ing from l.'i mm. to 1(5 mm., nearly always filled with the well-preserved 

 basics of the leaves which have disarticulated at natural joints, leaving 

 a smooth surface either convex or concave, or occasionally nearly iiat, 

 presenting a, si)ongy ap])earance; vascular buiulles of the leaves usually 

 distinct in the form of pits or of dots of darker color arranged in one row 

 all round the margin a short distance from it and with a few additional 

 ones near the center; ramentaceous interspaces thin for the si/c of the 

 trunks (1 to 4 mm.), compound, thai is, consisting of two or more plates 

 of lirmer material separated by intervals of loose porous tissue, very 

 uniform in character and little distorted, the porous tissue olten worn to 

 some distance leaving fissures divided by thin projecting walls; repro- 

 ductive organs sometinuis abundant and C()ns])icu()us,l)ut usually rather 

 scarce and poorly delined, some quite large with a cavitous funuel- 

 shai)ed or crater-shaped center, others simulating leaf scars except that 

 they are surrounded by a loose porous tissue in which angular pits 

 occasionally occur, still others resembling small branches, nuiking it 

 difQcult in some cases to decide to which class to refer them, one which 

 has been cut through the center longitudinally showing a heteroge- 

 neous mass of internal organs resting on a conical receptacle 155 mm. 

 below its somewhat projecting summit; armor 4 to 8 cm. thick, se[)a- 

 rated from the cortical parenchyma by a layer of true bark i\ mm. in 

 thickness of soft texture, its inner surface (exposed in one specimen) 

 covered with small pits or punctations and definitely marked by ellip- 

 tical scars about D mm. long and 5 mm. wide which are aligned horizon- 

 tally around the trunk the longer axis being in this direction, the 



