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armour, in those species in which it is thickest, being thus left 
of very even depth, proves in not a few instances to be the most 
durable part of the plant, or even all that is left behind. An 
interesting armour specimen, quite entire, has been described 
by Fliche from the Albien greensand of the Argonne. 1 
The Alberta type is just such a heavy armour fragment 
quite 10 centimetres deep, as shown in the plates. There is a 
moderate development of ramentum investing the leaf bases to 
a depth of several millimetres, and apparently the separate 
scales are quite coarse, as they run nearly the full length of 
the leaf bases. No fruits or bracts disturb the course of the 
spirals. But as the leaf bases are of the decidedly rhombic 
form finely exemplified by the Black Hills species Cycadeoidea 
Stillwelli, and as no bundle patterns appear on the outer faces 
or scars, the specimen is not easy to orient. It is quite 
as consistent to stand it on the longer as on the shorter edge. 
Similarly, because of this crushing down of the leaf base 
spirals in the type, it is not certain whether the small accom- 
panying armour fragment is of exactly the same species. The 
scars are in it a little larger, not distorted, and evenly lozenge- 
shaped. What is of decided interest to note is that in one 
instance the ends of leaf base bundles are aligned unmistakably 
along the lower or keel sides of the leaf base in the true cycadeoid 
manner. It is conclusive that a cycadeoid is present, not a 
cycad of modern type (Figure 8). 
Owing to the difficulty of preparing these casts, which are 
of rather soft clay, or ironstone, traversed by, or invested by, 
very soft carbon of the original tissues, no thin sections have 
been made. The methods ordinarily employed for obtaining 
these sections are useless, but efforts should not be abandoned 
to procure the histologic detail. It is probable that some of 
the ramentum is conserved, and possibly the leaf base structures 
in certain limited areas. 
1 See also “American fossil cycads,” vol. II, Carneegi Institution of 
Washington, Put). 34. 
