88 G. E. Wieland — American Fossil Cycads. 



collected by the writer himself while engaged in private explo- 

 ration carried on in the Black Hills region throughout the 

 summer of 1902. It was found after some days of patient 

 search at the well known Minnekahta locality, supposedly ex- 

 hausted by previous collecting. The specimen has an added 

 interest and importance as one of the few trunks found in place. 

 It lay on its side imbedded in a characteristic stratum of stra- 

 ticulate clayey sandstone, and only a few square inches of the 

 upper face of the main stem could be seen. 



Had this handsome and finely conserved specimen been 

 eroded out like most American and the Italian Cycadeoideas, 

 the basal branches, which were already fractured across their 



Fig. 10. 



Fig. 10. Cycadeoidea nana. x 1/6. 



The main central stem gives rise to the two low-set branches I and II, 

 and the smaller lateral branches III and IV. That numbered IV is the 

 smallest and fails of the good preservation seen in the others. —Near the 

 Roman numeral IV is located the ovulate fruit mentioned in the text. — 

 [Minnekahta, S. D., Author's Collection.] 



junction with the main stem, would have become separated, 

 and probably could never have been brought into their natural 

 position. It is thus by good fortune that the trunk adds 

 precious testimony to our knowledge of the branching types. 



Moreover, had one of the basal branches been found sepa- 

 rated it would in all likelihood have been referred to the species 

 C. nana* hitherto with some reservation regarded as an un- 

 * See Ward, loc. cit., pis. clvi, clvii. 



