210 DR. MAXAYELL T. MASTERs's COXTRIBUTIOXS 



was of opinion that it was nearer to the Silver Firs than to the 

 Larches. Carriore called it Larix Kcempfevi. Lambert and 



Parlatore grouped it under Phius. 



It is not necessary to cite other authors, who have only copied 

 what their predecessors have said ; but it may be stated that 

 Mr. Bentham, in the ' Genera PJantarum/ ii. p. 442 (1880), 

 after pointing out its peculiarities, concluded that the tree 

 must either be affiliated to the Cedars or considered as a distiuct 

 genus; the male flowers, however, were unknov^'n to him. 



This deficiency I have the satisfaction, thanks to the courtesy 

 of Si":nor Eovelli, of removini2:. One of the most remarkable 

 trees in the nursery of Signor Eovelli, at Pallanza, Italy, is a 

 tree of this species^ which in 18S4 put forth male catkins. These 

 male catkins settle the point. It is clearly not a Plmes (except 

 in the very widest and practically most inconvenient sense)- It 

 is not an Abies (Silver Fir), nor a Picea (Spruce), nor a Cedar, 

 nor a Larch ; but is the representative, as Grordon said, of a 

 distinct genus. In spite of "his ill-phrase," we consider our- 

 selres, therefore, hound to adopt his designation. The male 

 catkins are different from those of any Conifer known to us. To 

 some extent they remind us of those of the Grinkgo, which are 

 stalked, grow in tufts in the same manner, but which are mixed 

 with the leaves. It is needless to say there is little or no 

 other resemblance to the Ginkiro. The catkins resemble those 



o 



of CunningTiamia sinensis; but arc pendulous, not erect, and are 

 arranged in umbels at the apex of short spurs invested by brown 

 membranous scales (Plate X.). Each catkin is stalked, the stalk 

 being recurved, so that the catkin itself is pendulous, oblong, 

 about three quarters of an inch long, apple-green in colour. 

 The lower anthers are subglobose, almost sessile, the upper ones 

 are prolonged into a long appendage, sometimes lanceolate, some- 

 times, as shown in the drawing, 3-lobed at the apex. The pollen- 

 grains, drawn by Mr. AV. G. Smith, have each two bladders, as 

 in the Pines &c. 



The tassel-like catkins, not fully developed in our specimen, 

 must clearly be very ornamental, and are quite different from 

 the solitary sessile catkin of the Larch. The adult foliage and 

 cones from Signor Eovelli's plant are shown on Plate IX. 



Fortune first met with it as a dwarfed pot-plant, telling us that 

 when at a height of some 18 inches the Chinese contrive to make 

 it assume the guise of an aged Cedar of Lebanon. Ultimately 



>i - -r 



