158 SAXEGOTH/EA. . 



confined to the extremities ; in tliis stage it is a weeping tree of most 

 remarkable appearance and differs so widely from the mature state that 

 it has been taken both by natives and settlers for a different tree. In 

 the mature state it forms a round-headed tree with erect branches 

 ultimately developing a vast number of short, strict, close-set branchlets. 

 The Matai affords timber of great value on account of its smooth even 

 texture, strength and durability; it is heavy and close-grained but easily 

 worked. 



Prumnopitys spicata has been in cultivation under glass in Botanic 

 gardens for many years past, but no date of introduction appears to 

 have been recorded. As it grows wild in Stewart Island it is not 

 improbable that seedlings might be raised sufficiently hardy for the 

 climate of the south-western counties of England and Ireland. 



SAXEGOTH^A. 



Lindley in Journ. Hort. Soc. Loud. VI. 258 (1851). Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 

 497 (1868). Bentham and Hooker, Gen. Plant. III. 434 (1881). Eichler in Engler and 

 Prantl. Nat. PH. Fam. 103 (1887). Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXX. 10 (1893). 



As shown under Phyllocladus and Dacrydium, the Taxads and 

 Conifers of the southern hemisphere present some remarkable 

 deviations from all northern types in the structure of their reproductive 

 organs as well as in their general morphology, and in none of them 

 is this peculiarity more marked than in Saxegothiiea. With some 

 hyperbole, Lindley characterised it as " having the male flowers of a 

 Podocarp, the female cone of a Dammara (Agathis), the fruit of a 

 Juniper, the seed of a Dacrydium and the habit of a Yew." In a 

 scientific sense, Saxegothrea therefore possesses considerable interest 

 as being a connecting link between the Taxacere and Coniferoe, but 

 with a preponderance of characters pertaining to the former ; it is 

 a monotypic genus named in compliment to Prince Albert of 

 Saxe-Gotha, the much lamented Consort of Her Majesty the Queen. 

 Its essential characters will be gathered from the subjoined figures 

 and description of the species. 



Saxegothaea conspicua, 



On its native mountains where it attains its greatest development, 

 a tree of Yew-like aspect 20 30 feet high, at its highest vertical limit 

 a low dense shrub; in Great Britain mostly a much-branched dense 

 shrul) or low tree of irregular outline.* Bark of branches yellowish 

 brown, of the youngest shoots dull pale green. Buds, when formed, 

 intermediate between the true winter buds of Taxus and the leafy 

 terminal envelopes of the Cupressinese, minute, enclosed by leaf -like 

 scales that afterwards develop into foliage leaves. Leaves persistent 



* At Strete Ralegh, near Exeter, the residence of Mr. H. M, Imbert Terry, is an arborescent 

 form over 20 feet high with a trunk a foot .in diameter near the base and covered 

 with reddish brown bark. The tree has a spreading habit with a dark Yew-like aspect ;. 

 it was raised from the seed originally collected by William Lobb in southern Chile. 



