290 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
A NOTABLE PAPER in the forthcoming Igth annual report of the U.S. 
Geological Survey is that by Professor Lester F. Ward upon “ The Cretaceous 
formation of the Black Hills as indicated by the fossil plants,”’ with the col- 
laboration of Walter P. Jenney, Wm. M. Fontaine, and F. H. Knowlton. 
he paper contains 192 pages of text and 116 plates, those illustrating the 
species of Cycadeoidea (101 in number) being fine half tones. The plants 
are considered under four heads: (1) fossil cycadean trunks, (2) fossil forests, 
(3) other Lower Cretaceous plants, and (4) plants from the Dakota group. 
The surprising development of cycads in the region of the Black Hills is the 
subject of special interest to botanists. In 1894 Professor Ward described 
the seven cycadean species then known from Maryland, but the present 
paper contains the descriptions of twenty-two species from the Black Hills. 
These American forms all belong to the genus Cycadeoidea (really identical 
with Bennettites), which is not now regarded as a true cycad, but as forming 
a distinct gymnosperm group, Bennettitales, coordinate with Cycadales, etc. 
The whole paper is full of material for the botanist interested in the history 
or phylogeny of plant groups.— J. M. C 
FOLLOWING the discovery of the numerous gigantic species of Cycadeoi- 
dea (Bennettitales) from the Cretaceous of the Black Hills, described by Pro- 
fessor Ward in the toth annual report of the U. S. Geological Survey, there 
comes an account of a rich discovery of cycads in the Jurassic of Wyoming 
(Carbon county). The forms are small and bulbous, and are thought by Pro- 
fessor Ward to constitute a new genus, which he calls Cycade//a, and under 
which he describes no less than twenty species. The great feature of the 
genus seems to be a peculiar outer covering which completely invests and 
cuts off from view the usual cycadean armor. The statement is that “Cyca- 
della developed an exuberant growth of fine scales or hairs from the bases of 
its old petioles below the apex, which formed a woolly or mossy covering of 
considerable thickness, sufficient when tightly appressed to the trunk and 
petrified there to form a layer 5—15™™ thick all over the fossil trunks.” The 
paper appears in Proc. Washington Jog Sci. 1: 253-300.,1900, and is illus- 
trated by eight half tone plates. meet M. 
ALMOST a century ago ete Sibthorp and Smith published their 
Flore Graece Prodromus, and in his Flora Orientalis Boissier made suc 
additions as exploration of certain minor regions made necessary. In fact, 
our knowledge of the Grecian flora has been very incomplete. To supply 
this lack Wilhelm Engelmann has undertaken the publication of a complete 
flora of Greece by Dr. E. de Haldcsy,’ than whom no one is more competent, 
as he possesses abundant material, has traversed the country a number of 
7 Hadcsy, E. pe: Conspectus Flore Graece. Vol. 1. Fasc. 1. PP- ge 
Leipzig : Wilhelm Engelmann. 1900. M5 
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