1909] WIELAND—WILLIAMSONIAS OF MIXTECA ALTA 429 
found when a search was made for it a few years since, as Professor 
SEWARD of Cambridge has informed me. Also, there is a con- 
siderable number of the large buds inclosed by heavy ramentum- 
covered bracts of the same size and appearance as those from the 
Yorkshire coast. One favorable circumstance that has conduced to 
frequent preservation of the surface characters of the ovulate fruits 
is the formation by the outer zone of a layer of coal, which while 
liable to checking affords an excellent indicator for which one may 
keep constant watch. Furthermore, the close association of these 
fruits, leaves, and stems, though the latter are not well preserved as 
a rule, leads to the hope that as the collections come to embrace a 
wider range of localities, and the data of association come to be 
better known, more than one restoration of the complete plant can 
be made. That silicified forms may yet be found is proven by the 
occurrence of a well-silicified log of a new species of Araucarioxylon. 
Especially interesting is the occurrence at Mixtepec on the Rio 
Tlaxiaco of fruits of small size borne on slender stems, and also those 
with broad bladelike bracts of thin texture, if they are not indeed 
Sepals or petals. These small fruits, while not preserved in finer 
details, are abundant, and are quite uniformly accompanied by 
Small, much-branched stems, and by numerous fronds no more than 
Io°™ in length; though these may have been bipinnate. 
Of primary importance is a single fairly well-preserved impression 
Of a staminate disk from midway up in the plant beds in the main 
barranca between El Cerro del Venado on the south and El Cerro 
del Lucero on the north, near the coal outcrops of Mina Consuelo, 
15 miles from Tezoatlan. On my return from the Mixteca alta I 
supposed that I had not found any of the staminate organs of the 
cycadophytes; although various interesting fruits of seed ferns 
appeared to be present. But I found on my desk at the Instituto 
Geologico a letter from Professor NATHoRsT, dated from England 
and telling me that he had just visited the Yorkshire coast, where 
he had succeeded in finding the first definitely recognizable male 
flowers of Williamsonia, these agreeing essentially with the flower of 
Cycadeoidea as first discovered in the type of C. ingens and described 
in my Studies of American fossil cycads, parts I-IV. 
It can be readily understood that I had kept a sharp watch for 
