N0.1141. FOSSIL CYCADS FROM THE BLACK HILLS— WABD. 213 



No. 77 of the Yale collection is smaller above than below, and if it 

 belongs to C. paynei this is not a constant character. There is, more- 

 over, a peculiarity in No. 77 which distinguishes it from all other cyca- 

 dean trunks known to me, and which could not well be described as a 

 si)eci(ic character. I therefore set it forth here as an individual trait, 

 due perhaps entirely to the particular time at which the trunk was 

 entombed and the conditions under Avhich its mineralization took ])lace. 

 Tli(^ specimen shows a largo number of fruits on its surfacM*, Aviiich are 

 filled and protrude in greater or less degrees. .Alany of them consist 

 of protuberances or gentle swellings presenting a uniform granular 

 surface. These apparent granules are about 1 mm. in diameter, and 

 have the character of vein (piartz or chalcedony, sometimes with ablue- 

 ish cast, as if partially opalized. They are very uniform in size and 

 appearance, and look much like little seeds. In some of the fruits, 

 however, they are so exposed as to show what lies below the immediate 

 surface, and here they have the form of tlie terminal portions of small 

 rods or the silicified cores of tubes. The fact that they occupy the 

 whole central portion of the organ precludes the possibility of their 

 being the bases of involucral bracts, and, besides, they are not angular 

 nor semilunar, but cylindrical. They must, therefore, represent some of 

 the growths from the receptacle of the spadix, and the only such 

 growths thus far found in fossil cycads are the seminiferous peduncles 

 and the interseminal scales or chatf. I incline to regard thent ar, the 

 rei)resentatives of tlie former of these organs, but they are probably 

 not the organs themselves silicified, but simply the homogeneous and 

 structureless siliceous rods or cores that have filled the tubes caused 

 by the decay of these organs. 



The Yale specimens are all smaller than either of the National 

 Museum types, No. 77 weighing 21.09 kg.. No, (iO, 20.86 kg., and No. 

 58, which is dwarf, abnormal, and peihaps immature, o..'33 kg. 



CYCADEOIDEA ASPERA, new species. 



Trunks small, subconical, simple, very rough on the surface, light 

 brown varying to whitish, dark with white streaks within, moder- 

 ately heavy, about 20 cm. high, nearly the same in diameter, and 70 

 cm. in circumference; organs of the armor somewhat declined through- 

 out; phyllotaxy not traceable; leaf scars anomalous in having the 

 upper angle much sharper than the lower, the reverse of the usual 

 case and only elsewhere observed in C insolUrt, lower angle reduced to 

 a groove, a curve, or a straight line, lateral angles always sharp; scars 

 small, 12 to 25 mm. wide, 10 to 15 mm. high, subrhombic; leaf bases 

 present usually projecting 5 to 10 mm. above the walls, presenting a 

 light brown, very spongy and porous surface, without evidence that 

 any of the i)ores represent the scars of vascular strands; ramentaceous 

 interstices thin, 1 to 5 mm., dark reddish brown, sunk to varying 

 depths among the projecting leaf bases and other organs, scaly and 

 laminated with crooked and twisted plates; reproductive organs as 



