Maryland Geological Survey 321 



Cycadeoidea Marylandica, Ward, 1906, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xlviii, 

 1905, p. 416, pis. Ixxxi, Ixxxii, Ixxxiii, figs. 1, 2, 4; pi. Ixxxiv, figs. 1, 2; 

 pi. Ixxxvii, figs, li, 3, 5, 6, 7; iil, 1, 4; iv, 4, 5, 12-14; v, 2, 3, 5-7, 17; 

 pi. Ixxxviii, pl. Ixxxix, figs, li, 3. 4, 7; ill, 2, 5, 8; 90, 91, 92. 



Cycadeoidea Marylandica Wieland, 1906, American Fossil Cycads, fig. 1. 



Description. — Trunks of medinni or rather large size, almost always 

 more or less laterally compressed so as to be elliptical in cross-section, 

 conical in shape or slightly narrowed near the base, with a terminal bud 

 set in a slight depression at the summit, simple, or in one specimen, 

 apparently having one branch ; mineral constitution very variable accord- 

 ing to mode of preservation, but usually not hard, flinty, nor heavy and 

 compact; 25 to 45 cm. high, 24 to 40 cm. in longer, and 12 to 26 cm. 

 in shorter diameter, with a girth of from 70 cm. to 1 m. ; organs con- 

 stituting the armor proceeding at a right angle to the axis except above, 

 where they are ascending, and near the base, Avhere they are sometimes 

 slightly descending; leaf scars arranged in two series of spiral rows 

 crossing each other usually at a different angle to the axis of the trunk, 

 the angle varying from 30° to 75° ; scars usually subrhombic, i. e., with 

 the lateral angles nearly equal and the vertical ones unequal, the lower 

 more acute than the upper, the latter often reduced to a mere groove, or 

 wanting entirely, and the two upper sides together forming an arch, or 

 an irregular horizontal line; 15 to 25 mm. in breadth by 6 to 15 mm. in 

 height; remains of the petioles usually present in the scars at different 

 distances from the summit, often bearing evidence of having been dis- 

 articulated at a natural joint, sometimes indicating the existence of two 

 such joints at different depths in the scars; vascular bundles rarely vis- 

 ible under an ordinary lens, but occasionally seen in the form of a row 

 near the outer margin all round the leaf base with a few near the centre; 

 ramentum walls usually with a more or less distinct line marking the 

 junction of the parts belonging to adjacent petioles, sometimes with a 

 distinct layer of less compact tissue between these, occasionally^ but 

 rarely, affected with pits or small bract scars, especially in the angles; 

 reproductive organs usually abundant, often solid and protuding, gener- 

 ally more or less distinctly marked in the centre by the remains of the 

 essential organs and surrounded hj bract scars in several concentric 



