50 L. F. Ward — Famous Fossil Cycad. 



carpellary structure suggesting the presence of contained seeds ; 

 armor very thick (5 cm to 10 cm ), its attachment to the axis 

 obscure and apparently indefinite ; woody cylinder about 8 cm 

 thick, uniform in color and texture and showing on the rough 

 fractures no subdivisions or rings ; medulla about 13 cm in diam- 

 eter and nearly circular in cross section, hard, black, and homo- 

 geneous in structure, which differs little in appearance from 

 that of the wood. 



The only specimen of this species known is the one in the 

 Dresden Museum of which the history is here recorded. It 

 consists of the basal portion of a very large trunk of unknown 

 height and of which the exact form of the upper part is also of 

 course unknown, but from analogy with the hundreds of speci- 

 mens of cycads which are now known from different parts of the 

 world, it is tolerably safe to infer that the specimen represents 

 at least half the length and that the top was conical or dome- 

 shaped. The fracture through the middle portion is a little 

 oblique so that the specimen leans somewhat. It is nearly even, 

 but not wholly so, the central part of the piece preserved being 

 somewhat higher than the part next to the surface so as to make 

 it slightly arched or convex in the middle, sloping gently away 

 from the center in all directions, the elevation amounting to 

 about 4 cm or 5 cm . The specimen seems to have always been 

 placed on this square end, apparently for no better reason than 

 that it would thus stand without having to be blocked up, as 

 would have been necessary if it stood on its much less even 

 base. The base, as shown by the figures, is imperfect from the 

 loss of numerous chips and splinters on one side and of the 

 large piece on the other to which mention has already been 

 made (supra, p. 46). 



The specimen has not been weighed so far as known unless 

 this was done soon after it was sent to Dresden, and if so the 

 exact weight was not recorded, the only reference to the weight 

 being that of Eilenburg who says that it is "iiber einen Centner 

 schwer" (ibid, p. 24), which is repeated by Walch (op. cit., 

 p. 150). This estimate was certainly much too small, whether 

 we make the Centner 100, 112, or 120 pounds. The -specific 

 gravity is about the same as that of the type specimen of C. 

 Jenneyana and it is somewhat larger than the basal piece of 

 that specimen, which weighs 95 '26 kilograms, or nearly 210 

 pounds. 



Of all the species known to me C. Jenneyana is the one that 

 C. Beichenbachiana most closely resembles, but as the above 

 description clearly shows, it is certainly distinct from that 

 species and is probably distinct from all other species thus far 

 described. 



After having taken full notes of the specimen, from which I 

 have been able to make the above description, I drew the spe- 



