THE MARYLAND CYCADS. 439 



about two-thirds of a very low, flat trunk, complete at both base and 

 summit, which, although it has doubtless suffered much from vertical 

 compression, must have been originally exceedingly short in proportion 

 to its diameter. There is a large and rather deep depression at the base, 

 with a central elevation, all of which seems to have existed before fossil- 

 ization. There is also a broad, shallow depression at the summit and 

 the smaller piece has lost something here from fracture. These two 

 depressions reduce the specimen to the shape of a car wheel. The whole 

 surface is stained a light ocher by the red-paint clay in which it had lain, 

 but it is white within. The rock is rather soft and light. The maximum 

 vertical thickness is only 12 cm., but at the thinnest place in the interior 

 it is less than 4 cm. The diameter is 36 cm. and the specimen is nearly 

 circular in cross section. This would give the trunk a girth of 113 cm., 

 and the actual girth of the parts preserved is about 1 meter. (Locality: 

 PL LXXX, near No. 75). 



Cycadeoidea Fontaineana Ward. 



PI. LXXXVI; PL LXXXVII, Figs, i, 1; m, 2, 6, S; iv, 1, 7, 9; v, 1, 10, 11, 13, 

 14, 16, 18, 21; PL LXXXIX, Figs, i, 1; ra, 1, 3, 6, 7, 11; PL XCV; 

 PL XCVI; PL XCVII; PL XCVIII. 



1897. Cycadeoidea Fontaineana Ward: Proc. BioL Soc. Washington, VoL XI, p. 13. 

 Trunks small and low, usually much compressed or flattened verti-* 

 cally, light brown to whitish in color, often spongy or porous, and of low 

 specific gravity; leaves and spadices set nearly at right angles to the 

 axis; leaf scars not obviously arranged in spiral rows or imperfectly so 

 arranged, variable and irregular in shape, usually with four angles and 

 four curved sides, often in the form of a cross, rarely subrhombic, small, 

 8 mm. to 12 mm. in vertical and 14 mm. to 25 mm. in lateral measure- 

 ment, averaging 10 mm. by 19 mm; ramentum walls thick, 4 mm. to 

 10 mm., usuallj^ without commissure or punctations; leaf bases rarely 

 present ; when so, spongy or porous, without visible bundles ; terminal bud 

 6 cm. high, 65 mm. broad at the downwardly convex base, definitely 

 bounded below, symmetrically conical above, consisting of a mass of 

 densely matted bracts imbricated along a central axis; reproductive 

 organs few and imperfectly defined, usually cavitous in the center and 

 sometimes surrounded by irregular-shaped bract scars; armor rather 



