23G 



THKEE CONIFERS. 

 By R. a. DiJMMER. 



Thuya (Biota) orientalis var. nov. mexicana Diimmer. In 

 1817 Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth (Nov. Gen. et Sp. ii. 3) des- 

 cribed Ciipressus thurifera from specimens collected at Tasco and 

 Tehuilotepec in Mexico ; it was subsequently detected by Uhde 

 in Michoacoa and Oaxaca, and on the Sierra Madre by Seemann, 

 and Hartweg averred having seen specimens of it 120 ft. high 

 near Real de Monte ; since that time it has remained undiscovered, 

 and, as the paucity of herbaria material suggests, is one of the 

 rarest of conifers. 



Thirty years later Endlicher (Syn. Conif. 62) included this 

 species in the genus ChamcBcyimris, whence the name Chamoi- 

 cyixtris thurifera; but Masters having examined fragments of the 

 original specimens, which are preserved in the Willdenow Her- 

 barium, Berlin, and at Paris, restored it to its original position. 

 In his critical account of the genus Cupressus, Masters (Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxi. 349) gives figures depicting leafy twigs and 

 cones " of this plant, which in no way agree with Cwpressus 

 lusitanica, its variety Benthami, two cypresses with which it has 

 been confounded. 



While engaged on the conifers of the Lindley Herbarium, 

 Cambridge, my attention was drawn to a small fruiting specimen 

 labelled " Chamacyparis thurifera Endl. 308, Culta. Sept. 5, 81. 

 Orizaba," which suggested this long-lost plant. This particular 

 specimen was described by Lindley himself as such in Gard. 

 Chron. in 1856 (i. 772), and as his remarks are of interest, I here 

 transcribe them : — 



" There is commonly found in gardens throughout Europe a 

 Mexican coniferous tree called Cupressus thurifera, under the 

 supposition that it is the plant so called by Humboldt. Endlicher, 

 however, pointed out the mistake, showing that the garden plant 

 is a true Cypress, while that of Humboldt is a Chamcecyparis, and 

 therefore he called the latter Chamcecyparis thurifera, giving the 

 name of Cupressus Benthami to the wrong-named garden plant. 

 Dr. Klotzsch had previously circulated the name of C. Lindlcyi 

 for the same thing. No two plants can be more different than 

 Cupressus Benthami and Chamacyparis thurifera — the first a true 

 Cypress with numerous seeds to each scale of the cone — the 

 second a Chamacyparis with only two or one, and those not 

 winged. 



" But nobody seems of late years to have met with this 

 Chamoicyparis in Mexico ; even in the vast Herbarium of Kew it 

 is not to be found. A few cones of a Cypress-like plant with 

 roundish wingless seeds having, however, been received by the 

 Horticultural Society, and raised in the Chiswick Gardens, further 



* The cones (fig. 27) are those of Thuya (Biota) orientalis var. mexicana — 

 Botteri's cones, which are preserved at Kew and at Cambridge, and which Dr. 

 Masters erroneously suggested might belong to this species. 



