L. F. Ward — Fossil Cycads in the Yale Museum. 343 



vey, and will form a part of the cycad collection of the U. S. 

 National Museum. Its specific gravity is considerably higher 

 than that of the other specimens, but beyond this there are no 

 essential differences. 



On Plate II is represented the original specimen, ISTo. 53, 

 which is typical of the species, but was not figured in the 

 Nineteenth Annual Report of the IT. S. Geological Survey. 



Cycadeoidea protea, n. sp. 



Trunks small (8-1 2 cm high, 10-20 cm in diameter), low, sprang- 

 ling, and of all shapes, often contracted at the base, the dis- 

 tortion probably only slightly due to compression, usually 

 much branched, or consisting entirely of several somewhat 

 equal systems or branches, often with a well-preserved termi- 

 nal bud at the summit of each branch, usually nearly complete 

 and little broken or worn ; rock hard, firm, and fine grained, 

 reddish brown on the surface with lighter stripes, darker 

 within, of high specific gravity ; organs of the armor wholly 

 under the influence of the subordinate systems or branches, 

 usually erect with reference to the terminal buds ; phyllotaxy 

 also relating wholly to the branches, around which and the 

 often flattened summits the leaves are spirally arranged, some- 

 times with great regularity ; leaf scars, where visible, of nearly 

 normal subrhombic shape, but very variable in this respect due 

 to the exuberant branching, often reduced to mere slits ; very 

 small, 6-13 mm wide, averaging 9 mm , l-6 mm high, averaging 4 mm ; 

 leaf bases porous or showing a columnar structure but of a 

 hard substance, usually sunk some distance below the surface, 

 occasionally exhibiting a few large pits ; walls very thin, often 

 less than l mm , hard and flinty, of a lighter color than the leaf 

 bases and divided into several plates the edges of which present 

 a striate or grooved appearance, the middle plate sometimes 

 divided by a commissure ; reproductive organs small, few, and 

 obscure, but certainly present and apparently functional, some- 

 what raised, 12 Xl5 mm in diameter, surrounded by scars that 

 scarcely differ from the leaf scars, the central portion hetero- 

 geneous, apparently showing the ends of the essential organs ; 

 armor where exposed about 2 cm thick, but certain leaf bases 

 have a length of 4-6 cm , joined to the axis by a somewhat defi- 

 nite line ; wood rarely exposed, appearing about 3 cm thick and 

 divided into several rings, the outermost ring (cortical paren- 

 chyma) thin, the others showing no structure, the innermost 

 wall (exposed in one specimen) marked with broad shallow 

 grooves terminating in pits or scars and alternating with one 

 another ; medulla of a coarse sandy consistency, contrasting 



Am. Jour. Sci. — Fourth Series, Vol. X, No. 59. — November, 1900. 

 23 



