CHAP. CXIII. 



CONI FKHTl-:. CA'LLITRIS. 



2463 



catkin a small cone, somewhat 

 pendent, obtusely tetragonal. 

 Scales disposed in four ranks, 

 pediculate, buckler-shaped, 

 and of a pale yellow. Anthers 

 3 or 4 at the base of each 

 scale; sessile, somewhat 

 rounded. Female catkins so- 

 litary, and situated at the 

 summit of the branches. Cone 

 tetragonal, with obtuse an- 

 gles ; scales 4, woody, thick, 

 heart-shaped, hollowed longi- 

 tudinally on their exterior 

 surface, convex on the inte- 

 rior, and open from the base 

 to the summit; the two large 

 opposite scales bearing seeds, 

 and the two small ones sterile. 

 Seeds few, small, and with 



a wing at the side. A native of Mount Atlas, and of other uncultivated hills 

 on the coast of Africa, where it was discovered by Desfontaines, and seeds sent 

 to the Jardin des Plantes, about 1796. The trees seen by Desfontaines in Al- 

 giers were only from 15 ft. to 20 ft, high ; but Broussonet states that he had 

 seen larger ones in the kingdom of Morocco, In the climate of Paris, it 

 requires the protection of the conservatory during winter. In the con- 

 servatory of the Botanical Garden, at Berlin, there is a plant 15 ft. high, 

 which flowers and fruits every year, but the seeds do not germinate. Cal- 

 litris quadrivalvis was introduced into England in 1815; and there are plants 

 at Messrs. Loddiges's, where, trained against the wall of one of their green- 

 houses, it grows vigorously, and in January, 1832, flowered for the first 

 time in this country. There are also plants in some other collections 

 but it is by no means common. In the kingdom of Morocco, accordino- 

 to Broussonet, this tree produces the gum sandarach of commerce. This 

 substance is in tears, clear, shining, diaphanous, of a whitish yellow, and free 

 from impurities. Dissolved in the .spirit of wine, it produces a delicate varnish, 

 easily scratched ; reduced to a fine powder, it forms a very superior kind of 

 pounce.and is applied to paper and parchment to make them bear ink. It was 

 for a long time thought that the gum sandarach was obtained from some species 

 of J^unfperus. Captain S. E. Cook, in his Sketches in Sjyain, vol. ii., has brouo-ht 

 to light the interesting fact, that the woodwork of the roof of the celebrated 

 mosque, now the cathedral of Cordova, which was built in the ninth century, 

 was of the wood of this tree. It had been previously thought to be that of 

 the larch, from the resemblance of the Spanish word alerce, which is applied 

 to the wood of Callitris quadrivalvis in Spain and Barbary, to the Latin word 

 larix ; whence the English word larch. The larch, however, is not found in any 

 part of Spain. After carefully examining the wood in question, and comparing 

 it with the timber of the roofs of the Alhambra, the Alcaza, or Royal Palace 

 of Seville, and other remains of the Moors in Andalusia, the roofs of which 

 are of the Pinus Pinea, or stone pine, once extensively grown in Andalusia 

 Captain Cook came to the conclusion, that the origin of the timber of the 

 mosque must be sought elsewhere, and that it was not of any Spanish or even 

 European, tree. " By a singular coincidence, the subject had been undergoing 

 investigation about the same time in Africa. Mr. Drummond Hay, the British 

 consul at Tangier, had, by tracing the Arabic etymology of the word alerce 

 by availing himself of the extensive botanical researches of the late Mr. 

 Schawboe, the Danish consul in Morocco, and by collating the accounts of 

 the resident Moors, made out that the alerce was the Thuja articulata, 

 Besf, (Callitris quadrivalvis Vent.), which grows on Mount Atlas, in the 



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