116 
GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA. 
it is a graceful drooping evergreen shrub, with the habit of Llhocedrits tetragona^ to which it in fact approaches so nearly 
when old as not to be easily distinguishable unless in fruit. When young, the leaves are very spreading, linear, acute, 
decussate, narrowed at the base, flat, with two glaucous lines on the underside. When old they become triangular, 
sessile, closely imbricated scales, with very little appearance of glaucousness. The female flowers are little terminal 
stellate cones, remarkable for having the axis terminating in three soft clavate glands, or abortive scales. I have not 
examined them very carefully, but Mr. B. Clarke, with whose notes and' sketches of this plant Sir W, Hooker has also 
favoured me, describes the fruit as consisting '^ of nine scales, three in a whorl. The lower three, which alternate with the 
uppermost leaves, are barren ; the intermediate three only are fertile ; the three uppermost altenaate with the fertile 
and are flattened, but stand with their edges outwards. Each fertile scale has three erect seeds, surrounded by a broad 
wing, and ending in a narrow neck ; the central seed is attached to the scale, the two lateral to the axil ; sometimes two 
seeds are ou the scale, and three on the axil." The male flowers are unknown ; but as far as the females indicate 
distinctions, Fitz-Roya can be said to difier little from Tftujopsh, except in the three terminal glands of the cone, and in 
three only of the scales being fertile. Saxe-GofJicea conspicua, Fitz-Roya paiagomca, Lihocedrm tetragona, and Podocaqms 
nublcola are, no doubt, the four most interesting Conifers for this country, after Araucaria imbricata, which Soutli 
America produces. — Jouni, of fforL Soc.y vol. vi. 
388. Berbeets empetrifolia ; var. euneata. A dwarf narrow-leaved 
beauty, with solitary deep yellow flowers. Native of Patagonia, 
and Soutli Chili. (Fig. 194.) 
evergreen 
bush, of Kttle 
From the country lying between the Straits of Magellan and the Cordillera, near 
Valparaiso. A little trailing bush, with stiff 3-parted spines, and linear pungent leaves, 
not unlike those of Qenista anglica ; bright gi-een, clustered, and about an inch long. 
From their axils appear, in the month of May, a few bright yellow flowers, growing 
singly or in pairs, on stalks shorter than the leaves. This is an humble plant, 
suited for rock-work in a mild climate, but among the less valuable of the genus. 
According to Dr. Hooker, it is confined to the Cordillera, and charactei-istic of a dry 
climate. — Tourn. oj 
The specimen I 
In the gardens. 
ffoH 
389. Chrysobacteon Hookeri. Colemo. 
A greenhouse or frame 
) 
rellow 
evergreen herbaceous plant, from New Zealand. Flowers in 
erect racemes. Belongs to the Natural Order of Lilyworts. Intro- 
duced at the Eoyal Botanic Garden, Kew. 
The first species of the present genus ( C. Hossii) was detected by Dr. Hooker in 
Lord Auckland's Islands, and it is figured and described in the Flora Antarctica. 
It was named Chrysobactron, « in allusion to the magnificent racemes of golden 
flowers " which that species bears. We have here a second species, far less showy, 
from New Zealand, whence the roots were sent by Mr. Bidwill. Mr. Colenso 
detected it soon after. The former gentleman found it m the rich alluvial plain of 
the upper part of Walru, Middle Island ; the latter in the sides of watercourses, in 
the country between the Ruahine range and Taupo, plentiful. « It grows in great 
clumps in boggy places, and is said to cover the plain with a sheet of yellow when in 
bloom. Some of the masses are three feet in diameter." Leaves eighteen inches 
long, Imear-ligulate, canaliculate, glaucous-green, striated, acuminated, rather indu- 
rated at the pomt, the base yellowish, the three or four outer ones, nearest the root, 
are reduced to brown scales. Scape quite leafless, a foot and a half to two feet and 
even thu-ty inches high, erect, terete, bearing at the top numerous golden-yeOow 
flowers in a rather lax raceme. Pedicels erect, bracteated, bracteas ovate, with a 
subulate pomt rather shorter than the pedicels. Perianth of six oblong spreading 
sepals. Stamens six : filaments subulate, arising from the base of the sepals. 
Ovary obovate, with three furrows. Style subulate, rather longer than the ovary. 
Capsule oblong-obovate, mucronate, elevated on a short stipes, three-celled, six- 
seeded. We have hitherto kept it in a cool frame during winter, for though it comes 
irora an elevated region m a high southern latitude, we fear it may not be suffi- 
ciently hardy to bear the severity of some of our mntem .-JSot. Ma<j., t. 4602. 
