3884 OLDER MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 
In another letter dated November 1, 1898, he makes the following 
more specific statement: 
A section through the locality will be about as follows: 
Feet, 
Triassic red sandstone ...._......-.-.---------- eee ee eee ee eee ee eee 1, 000 
Lower JUrassie: (Marine) ov. « criserjeree se eeemsceetiaesioeseewenics 200 
Upper Jurassic (fresh water) .............-.------- piers cera te 225 
Dakota conglomerate .-.......2.. 0-0 20--eee ee eee eee eee eee eee 50 to 200 
Your Black Hills section reminds me of the Big Horn Basin country where I found 
beds that I could not place in the Dakota. In no instance in the section given have 
I detected any nonconformability, although I anticipate that such exists between 
the Jurassic and Dakota. 
I spent the latter part of November of that year at the Yale Museum 
describing the new material that Professor Marsh had acquired since 
my visit in June. This included the two specimens received from Mr. 
Reed from the Jurassic of Wyoming, and I took as full notes on them 
as possible. It was apparent at a glance that they had nothing to do 
with the Black Hills cycads, and that they were very different from 
anything that I had seen either in this country or in Europe. In 
some respects they resembled the specimens from the Purbeck beds 
of the Isle of Portland, especially the small ones that I saw there in 
1894, and of which I obtained 20 specimens for the United States 
National Museum. This, however, had less to do with their botanical 
than with their mineralogical character, their light color, soft, ashy 
constitution, and especially their obviously partially calcareous nature. 
In writing to Professor Knight after my return, in a letter dated 
December 5, 1898, I said: 
I was in New Haven all last week working up a collection of cycads that Pro- 
fessor Marsh has obtained since I was there in June. Among them were the two from 
Wyoming that Mr. Reed sent him. I took full noteson them. One is immature and 
the other a fragment, and neither ought to form the basis for a species, although they 
seem to be specifically different from each other and also from any other cycads 
known to me. If there is any prospect of my handling your full collection, or any 
considerable part of it, I shall delay describing these until I have seen more 
material. 
While I was in New Haven in November, 1898, Professor Marsh 
requested me to name one of the Wyoming species, should there prove 
to be a new one, for Mr. Reed, the original collector. I have complied 
with this request in the present paper. I should have naturally done 
so, in conformity with the general practice of naming species after the 
collector, but in the present case, since Professor Marsh so strongly 
requested it, it becomes an obligation, as it certainly is a pleasure. 
Although from Professor Knight’s representation, and from all 
accounts, there was little doubt as to the Jurassic age of the cycad bed 
in the Freezeout Hills of Wyoming, still my desire to visit the spot 
and obtain a clear first-hand idea of it and of its relations to other 
