O. JR. Wieland — Historic Fossil Cycads. 99 



sic sandstones of Hawkser and Runswick cliffs, secured by 

 Brongniart. Imperfectly figured by Saporta in the Plantes 

 Jurassiques, vol. ii, it was casually mentioned by Solms-Lau- 

 bach in his Fossil Botany as the only cycadean stem known to 

 him with leaves attached, and later still by Seward, who 

 observed the presence of the terminal and typical William- 

 sonia peduncle. Yet we remain without an adequate descrip- 

 tion ; for, although a silicified Ptilophyllum stem with frond 

 bases bearing a few pinnules has been reported from India, 

 and though many of the silicified stems from the Black Hills 

 bear entire crowns of young fronds, here is the only cycado- 

 phyte known in all the world's museums with quite complete 

 mature fronds plainly attached to the parent stem. Moreover, 

 the present plant differs markedly from the above forms in its 

 stem characters only, and is a fundamentally important con- 

 necting link between Cycas and those Gycadeoidean types 

 with much reduced laterally-borne fructifications. It is, too, 

 a fossil of great beauty ; — -conserved as a semi-cast, or combi- 

 nation of cast and imprint in a block of grayish white sand- 

 stone (Lower sandstone of Phillips), traces of the original 

 carbon add very markedly to the clearness of the outlines of 

 the stem, fronds, bracts, and peduncle. All of the features 

 are exposed by a single fortunate split of the matrix which 

 reveals the connection of the stem and petioles of at least 

 three of the fronds, one above the other ; while various other 

 fronds traversing the matrix make it clear that all of the 

 fronds of a sparse crown are present and, in most cases, con- 

 nected. That is, an entire plant with mature fronds and large 

 fruits, as indicated by the prolongation of the stem as a pedun- 

 cle, is surprisingly well shown. In life the foliar crown was 

 of the same size as one of our Florida Zamias, with fronds a 

 little less than two feet in length ; but the stem, the basal por- 

 tion of which is broken away, was slenderer — less than five 

 centimeters in diameter, armor and all, and may have been 

 long. Easily the most striking feature is the continuation of 

 the main axis with but slight constriction and no evidence of 

 lateral budding, as a bract-covered peduncle. This rises to a 

 height of some ten centimeters above the leafy crown and 

 then forks just where cut off by a transverse fracture studded 

 by small barnacles. As thus plainly indicated, the fossil came' 

 from a point on the Hawkser or Runswick cliffs between high 

 and low tide, and may even have been found in situ, rather 

 than as talus material, if the fruits were turned toward the 

 cliff-face. The barnacle-studded fracture is but little water- 

 worn, and the forked peduncle appears to be broken off just at 

 the base of two large fruits, or, as is quite as likely, a single 

 fruit and the new phytaxis. 



In short, it seems highly probable that had the importance 

 of the specimen been at once realized when collected some 



