FOEEIGN NOTICES. 



Saxe-Goth^a C0N9PICUA. — Tliis remarkable plant, to -vrhich His Royal Highness Prince Albert 

 has been pleased to permit one of his titles to be given, and which will probably rank among tlie 

 most highly valued of our hardy evergreen trees, is a native of the mountains of Patagonia, 

 where it was found by Mr. William Lobr, forming a beautiful tree 30 feet high. In the nursery 

 of Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter, it has hved 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 stormy and cold than any part of Great Britain, as is shown by the follow- 

 ing 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 140 miles. I went up the Corcobado, Caylin, Alman, Coman, 

 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 w^hole 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 Coinau, 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, among the melting snows, vegetation becomes so much stunted 

 in growth, that the trees, seen below 100 feet high and 8 feet in diameter, only attain the height 

 of 6 inches. 



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

 appear to rise among the snow, which is 30 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, oi^.e 

 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 200 feet to 300 feet in height, over which roll the waters from the 

 melting snows, which appear 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 depth of 2000 feet. In the forest below everything appears calm and tranquil ; scarcely tlie 

 sound of an animal is heard ; sometimes a few butterflies and beetles meet the eye, but not a 

 house or a human being is seen. On the sandy tracts near tlie rivers, the lion or puma is fre- 

 quently 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 were obtained, and among them the Saxe-Gothcm, Podocarpus nuhigena, Fitz-Roya Pala- 

 gonica, and Liboccdrus tetragona. Of these he writes thus : 



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

 inhabits tlie rocky precipices, and the latter the swampy places between the mountains. The 

 first grows to an enormous size, particularly about the winter snow line, where I have seen trees 

 upwards of 100 feet high, and more than 8 feet in diameter. It may be traced from this eleva- 

 tion to the perpetual snows, where it is not more than 4 inches in height. With these grow the 

 Yews {Saxe-Gofhcea and Podocarpus nubigena), which are beautiful evergreen trees, and, as well 

 as the others, afford excellent timber." 



Saxe-Gotii.ea may be described as a genus with the male flowers of a Podocarp, the females 

 of a Dammar, the fruit of a Juniper, the seed of a Dacrydium, and the habit of a Yew. Its 

 fleshy fruit, composed of consolidated scales, enclosing nut-like seed, and forming what is techni- 

 cally called a Galbulus, places it near Juniperus, from which it more especially diff'crs in its 

 anthers not being peltate, nor its fruit composed of a single whorl of perfect scales, and its ovule 

 having two integuments instead of one. In tlie last respect it approaches Podocarpus, and 

 especially Dacrydium ; but the exterior integument of the seed is a ragged abortive membrane, 

 enveloping the base only of the seed, instead of a well-defined cup. In a memorandum in my 

 possession, by Sir William Hooker, I find the distinguished botanist comparing Saxe-Gotha?a to a 



