324 Systematic Paleontology 



Description. — Trunks low and flat, with ample diameter, sometimes 

 three times as thick as high, yellowish, brown, or nearly black, more or 

 less porous and spongy, and of low specific gravity; leaves and repro- 

 ductive branches set nearly at right angles to the axis; leaf scars ar- 

 ranged somewhat definitely in quincunx order and disposed in. spiral 

 rows around the trunk, small and uniform in shape, subrhombic with 

 the vertical angles obtuse, the lateral ones acute, narrow-elongate, G cm. 

 to 10 cm, in vertical by 16 mm, to 20 mm, in lateral dimensions, aver- 

 aging 8 mm, by 20 mm., usually empty, by the disappearance of the leaf 

 bases, at least to a considerable depth; ramentum walls thin, often less 

 than 1 mm., with or without evident commissure, and with occasional 

 punctuations; axes of inflorescence few and scattering, sometimes pro- 

 jecting, sometimes cavitous from the decay of the essential organs, sur- 

 rounded by obtusely triangular or somewhat crescent-shaped bract scars ; 

 armor 4 cm. to 5 cm. thick ; liber and cambium sometimes distinguish- 

 able ; woody zone usually divided into two or three rings ; medulla large, 

 porous. 



A very distinct species of low and squat trunks, some of them having 

 almost the form of a car wheel, only a very small part of which can be 

 due to vertical compression. The external organs, however, closely re- 

 semble those of Cycadeoidea Tysoniana. 



Cycadeoidea Fontaineana Ward 

 Plate XLV 



Cycadeoidea Fontaineana Ward, 1897, Proc. Biol. Soc, Washington, vol. xi, 



p. 13. 

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



1905, p. 439, pi. Ixxxvi; pi. Ixxxvii, figs, i, 1; iii, 2, 6, 8; iv, 1, 7, 9; v, 



1, 10, 11, 13,. 14, 16, 18, 21; pi. Ixxxix, figs, i, 1; iii, 1, 3, 6, 7, 11; pi. 



xcv; pi. xcvi; pi. xcvii; pi. xcviii. 



Description. — Trunks small and low, usually much compressed or 

 flattened vertically, light brown to whitish in color, often spongy or 

 porous, and of low specific gravity; leaves and fruiting branches set 

 nearly at right angles to the axis; leaf scars not obviously arranged in 

 spiral rows, variable and irregular in shape, usually with four angles and 



