22 CYCADACEJE. 



are met with in Dioon edule, Lind., and to a certain extent in 

 Zamia Lindeni, etc. Newberry l has doiibtfully referred a small 

 portion of a frond from the Ehsetic beds of Honduras to the genus 

 Encephalartos, but expresses his hesitation as to the true position 

 of the specimen by adding a query to the generic name. It is 

 suggested by Newberry that the Miocene cycad named by Saporta 

 Encephalartos Gorceixianus, does not correspond so closely with any 

 living member of the genus as does the Honduras specimen ; he 

 adds: "This correspondence in the form of the pinnules is so 

 close that I felt warranted in placing our fossil provisionally in the 

 genus Encephalartos. The fructification will of course be necessary 

 for a demonstration of generic identity, and has not yet been 

 obtained." In Lesquereux' posthumous monograph on the Dakota 

 flora, there is a fragment figured and described as a new species, 

 under the name Encephalartos cretaceus, Lesq. 2 ; but this is another 

 example of what we may regard as the utterly unwarrantable use 

 of a recent generic name, and the institution of a new species on 

 absolutely insufficient data. It does not seem to have been generally 

 recognized that the living species of Encephalartos present a great 

 variety of leaf form, from the long and narrow pinnaa of such 

 species as E. GhellincMi, Lem. (PI. XIII. Fig. 3), and E. 

 cyeadifolius, Lehm. (PL XIII. Fig. 6), through E. Lehmanni, 

 Lehru., etc., to E. Caffer, Miq., and E. horridus, Lehm. There 

 is a very striking difference between the young and old fronds 

 of E. cijcadifolim : in the former the pinnaB are much more oblique 

 to the rachis, and have not assumed the stiff and straight character 

 which is so pronounced in the latter. Many of the Mesozoic 

 cycadean fronds present a striking similarity to Encephalartos 

 leaves, but it would be exceedingly rash to apply the name of 

 the recent genus to even the best of these fronds, and still more 

 unwise to make use of it for the merest fragments of isolated 

 pinnae. 



It will be most convenient to consider the "NYealden specimens 

 referred to the Cycadacece under the headings Frondes and Trunci ; 

 and also to describe such seeds and reproductive structures as may 

 possibly be included among cycadean fossils. Unfortunately the 

 isolated mode of occurrence of leaves, stems, and seeds does not 



1 (1), p. 346, fig. 5. 



2 Lesquereux (A. 3), p. 29, pi. i. fig. 12. 



