262 NOTICES OF CERTAIN ORNAMENTAL PLANTS 



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-Gothcea, Podocarpus nubigena, Fitz- Roya pata- 

 gotiica, and Lihocedrus tetragona. Of these he writes thus : — 



" Tlie two last {Fltz-Roya and Lihocedrus) 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, wliere I have seen trees upwards of 100 feet high, and more 

 than 8 feet in diameter. It may be traced from this elevation 

 to the perpetual snows, where it is not more tlian 4 inches in 

 height. With these grow the Yews {Saxe-Gothcea ixnd Podo- 

 carpus nubigena), which aie beautiful evergreen trees, and, as 

 well as the others, afford excellent timber." 



Saxe-Goth.^a may be described as a genus with tlie 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 technically called a (iralbulus, places it 

 near Juniperus, from which it more especially differs in its anthers 

 not being peltate, nor its fruit composed of a single wliorl of perfect 

 scales, and in its ovule having two integuments instead of one. In 

 the last respect it approaches Podocarpus, and especially Dacry- 

 dium ; 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 this distinguished botanist comparing 

 Saxe-Gothgea to a Podocarp with the flowers in a cone — a view 

 which he was probably led to take by the condition of the ovule, 

 and which may l)e regarded as the most philosophical mode of 

 understanding the nature of this singular genus ; to which 

 Nageia may be said to be a slight approach, and which is not 

 distinguishable by habit from a Podocarp. 



In its systematic relations Saxe-Gotii£ea possesses great in- 

 terest, forming as it does a direct transition from the one-flowered 

 Taxads to the true imbricated Conifers, without, however, breaking 

 down the boundary between those orders, as I understand them, 

 but rather confirming the propriety of limiting the Coniferous 

 order to those genera which really bear cones instead of single 

 naked seeds. In the language of some naturalists, Saxe-Gothaea 

 would be called an osculant genus between Taxads and Conifers. 



The LEAVES of this plant have altogether the size and general 

 appearance of the English Yew, Taxus haccata ; but they are 

 glaucous underneath, except upon the midrib and two narrow 

 stripes within the edges, which are pale green. The male 

 FLOWERS consist of spikes appearing at the ends of the branches, 



