SAXE-GOTH.EA CONSPICTJA. 



Tnis remarkable plant, to wliich His Royal lliL^^hjioss I'riiu^e Albert lias per- 

 niitted one of his titles to be j,nven, and whieli will ])robably rank anion<^ the most 

 highly valued of our hardy evergreen-trees, is a native of the mountains of Pata- 

 gonia, where it was found by Mr. William Loljb, forming a beautiful tree thirty 

 feet high. In the nursery of Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter, it has lived in the open 

 air for four years without shelter, and has all the appearance of being well-adapted 

 to the climate of England. The country in which it grows is, indeed, more cold 

 and ^orray than any part of Great Britain, as is shown by the following account 

 of it, given by Mr. Lobb in one of his letters to Messrs. Veitch: — 



" During my absence, I visited a great part of Chiloe, most of the islands in 

 the Archipelago,, and the coast of Patagonia for about one hundred and forty 

 miles. I went up the Corcobado, Cayliu, Alraan, Comau, Reloncavi, and other 

 places on the coast, frequently making excursions from the level of the sea to the 

 line of perpetual snow. These bays generally run to the base of the central ridge 

 of the Andes, and the rivers take their rise much further back in the interior. 

 The whole country, from the Andes to the sea, is formed of a succession of ridges 

 of mountains gradually rising from the sea to the central ridge. The whole is 

 thickly wooded from the base to the snow line. Ascending the Andes of Comau, 

 I observed, from the water to a considerable elevation, the forest is composed of 

 a variety of trees, and a sort of cane so thickly matted together that it formed 

 almost an impenetrable jungle. Further up, amongst the melting snows, vegeta- 

 tion becomes so much stunted in growth, that the trees, seen below one hundred 

 feet high and eight feet in diameter, only attain the height of six inches. 



" On reaching the summit, no vegetation exists — nothing but scattered barren 

 rocks, which appear to rise amongst the snow, which is thirty feet in depth, and 

 frozen so hard that on walking over it the foot makes but a slight impression. 



" To the east, as far as the eye can command, it appears perfectly level. To 

 the south, one sees the central ridge of the Andes stretching along for an immense 

 distance, and covered with perpetual snow. To the west, the whole of the islands 

 from Guaytecas to the extent of the Archipelago, is evenly and distinctly to be seen. 



" A little below this elevation, the scenery is also singular and grand. Rocky 

 precipices stand like perpendicular walls from two hundred feet to three hundred 

 feet in height, over which roll the waters from the melting snows, which ajipear 

 to the eye like lines of silver. Sometimes these waters rush down with such force, 

 that rocks of many tons in weight are precipitated from their lofty stations to the 

 de[»th of two thousand feet. In the forest below, everything appears calm and 

 tranquil ; scarcely the sound of an animal is heard ; sometimes a few butterflies 

 and beetles meet the eye, but not a house or human being is seen. On the sandy 

 tracts near the rivers, the lion or puma is frequently to be met with, but this 

 animal is perfectly harmless if not attacked." 



It is from this wild and uninhabited country that many of the fine plants raised 

 by Messrs. Veitch w-ere obtained, and among them the Soxe-Gothcea, Podocarptis 

 nubigena, Fitz-Roya patigonica, and Libocedrus tetragoiia. Of these he writes 

 thus : — 



" The two last {Fitz-Roya and Libocedrus) I never saw below the snow line. 

 The former inhabits the rocky precipices, and the latter the swampy places between 

 the mountains. The first grows to an enormous size, particularly about the win- 

 ter snow line, where I have seen trees upwards of one hundred feet high, and more 

 eight feet in diameter. It may be traced from this elevation to the perpetual 



