THE MARYLAND CYCADS. 407 



large number of persons in such a way that they could not fail to comprehend his 

 meaning. Having secured one specimen, he carried it about in his wagon and 

 showed it to all whom he met. His surprise was great to find that a large propor- 

 tion of the inhabitants of the iron-ore districts had at some time in their lives seen 

 similar things and were able to recognize them. In some cases a person to whom 

 he would show his specimen would reply at once that there was such a stone in 

 liis barnyard or near his house, and by a very little negotiation he was able easily 

 to secure it. By far the greater number, in fact nearly all, of the specimens were 

 thus found in the possession of the people. Many of them could remember having 

 ploughed them out of their fields, or taken them from their ore pits; others there 

 were that had lain so long around farmhouses whose occupants had several times 

 changed that it was impossible to trace them to their original source, but usually 

 even in such cases there was a tradition lingering in the family with regard to the 

 peculiar stones. The reason why they were so universally picked up and brought 

 to the house or the workshop or the barnyard or laid up in some conspicuous place 

 seems to be that their peculiarity was instantly recognized. A countryman knows 

 every stone that he has seen about his place, and if there be one which differs 

 markedly from others, especially if it has a certain symmetry of form or shows 

 unusual and regular markings, he at once distinguishes it, is impressed by its appear- 

 ance, and probably, at first at least, couples with the notion of its strangeness some 

 vague idea of its possible utility or money value. He therefore invariably picks 

 it up and sequestrates it in some way. After many years, finding that there is no 

 demand for it, that no one knows any use to which it can be put, he eventually 

 loses interest in it and it is pushed aside, forgotten, and perhaps covered up in some 

 obscure corner. So that in addition to the specimens that Mr. Bibbins actually 

 obtained, there remain quite a number which are known to exist, but which for 

 the present can not be found. 



Mr. Bibbins always frames his questions with skill, taking care not to ask 

 leading ones, realizing that the desire to please is liable to color the answer and 

 make it conform to what it is supposed he desires to have said. He therefore 

 always takes pains to induce these people to tell what they know independently 

 of any suggestion on his part. 



As an illustration of the accuracy with which such persons often observe and 

 remember facts may be mentioned a case in which one of these traditional lost 

 specimens was being inquired after from an octogenarian who remembered seeing 

 it some forty years before, and when asked if the "holes" in the stone were "round" 

 he replied, "No, they were sort o' three-cornered," a remark which rendered it 

 certain that the object was really a cycad (pp. 295-296). 



Mr. Bibbins continued to secure cycads and send them to me. Many 

 trunks were found in the iron-ore region and brought to him by the inhab- 

 itants, who were now thoroughly interested in the subject. Prof. P. R. 



