L. F. Ward — Fossil Cycads in the Yale Museum. 329 



invoices were on their way, but it was impossible to wait for 

 them to arrive and be described before going to press with the 

 Nineteenth Annual Report. They came, however, during the 

 summer, and added 44 specimens to the Yale collection, which 

 I studied in November of that same year, but the results were 

 not then published. In fact, the investigation was purposely 

 left incomplete, because in the meantime, viz., in October of 

 that year, I had been over the entire cycad-bearing area of the 

 Black Hills in company with Mr. H. F. Wells, who had col- 

 lected all the cycads for Professor Marsh, and had seen on the 

 ground such an immense number of trunks and fragments that 

 I had determined to make every effort to have these added to 

 the collections already made. I had understood from Mr. 

 Wells that Professor Marsh had declined to purchase any 

 more, and I made a strong effort to induce the authorities of 

 the IJ. S. National Museum to secure them on the extremely 

 reasonable terms for which Mr. Wells offered to do the work. 

 Failing in this, I appealed to Professor Marsh to secure them 

 for Yale, which he did promptly, and before spring they had 

 all arrived. 



To give an idea of the extent and wealth of these latest 

 accessions, it is only necessary to say that while, even after the 

 arrival of the third invoice in the summer of 1898, the entire 

 collection numbered only 170 specimens, it now numbers 731 

 specimens ! It is true that many of these are fragments 

 broken from larger trunks, but this was precisely what was 

 needed to complete and perfect the collection. From a scien- 

 tific point of view, fragments are often more valuable than per- 

 fect trunks, since they reveal the internal structure and throw 

 light on the entire nature of the plants. Then again many of 

 these fragments and disjecta membra are found to belong to 

 specimens previously received, and add directly to their value. 

 For example, the largest specimen in the collection, which, 

 when the parts were gotten together and weighed, proved to 

 be the largest trunk known in the world, came in different 

 invoices and in four pieces. One branch, No. 145, was in the 

 third invoice, and I had left it unassigned, well knowing that 

 it was incomplete, and hoping that the remainder might 

 ultimately be found. It did in fact arrive, and the parts have 

 been brought into position and mounted in the exhibition hall 

 on the second floor, where it may be seen of all men. Happily 

 it proves to belong to the great branching species which I 

 dedicated to Professor Marsh, and will stand forever as a 

 tribute to his labors in this field — the Cycadeoidea Marshiana. 



As was naturally to be supposed, and as I fully expected, 

 the greater part of these numerous accessions have been found 

 to belong with more or less certainty to one or other of the 22 



