FITZROYA ARCHERI. 197 



Ovuliferons flowers also small, solitary and terminal, composed of 



two four pairs of scales of which the two uppermost and largest bear 



t w o three orthotropous (erect) ovules. 



Strobiles small, globose; scales sub-ligneous, persistent, the two upper- 

 most pairs alone fertile and bearing two three winged seeds. 



The vegetative organs are sufficiently described under each species. 

 The genus is named in compliment to Captain Fitzroy, commander 

 of H.M. surveying ship " Beagle," during the voyage of which 

 ^1881 1836) the type species was discovered.* 



Pitzroya Archeri. 



A low tree with a trunk sometimes 15 18 inches in diameter; more 

 frequently a much-branched erect shrub 5 12 feet high. Branches 

 numerous with dark chestnut-brown bark and tetrastichous (four-ranked) 

 ramification ; branchlets slender, four-angled and similarly ramified. 

 Leaves small, scale-like, in decussate pairs, ovate-triangular, obtuse, 

 strongly keeled at the back, concrescent or closely imbricated, dark 

 green with a white stomatiferous line on each side of the keel ; 

 .somewhat larger on the axial growths, more acute, free at the apex 

 and becoming effete in the third or fourth year. Staminate flowers 

 composed of six eight anthers in decussate pairs. Ovuliferous flowers 

 consisting of four scales in opposite pairs, of which the smaller outer 

 pair are sterile and the larger inner pair each bears two orthotropous. 

 ovules. 



Fitzroya Archeri, Bentham in Gen. Plant III. 425 (1881). Eichler in Engler 

 and Prantl, Nat. Pfl. Fam. 95. 



Diselma Archeri. Hooker til, Fl. Tasman. I. 353, t. 98 (1860). Carriere, Traite 

 Conif. ed. II. 84. ' Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 462. And others. 



This, the Tasmanian species, has a very restricted habitat around 

 Lake St. Clair and on the western mountains which it ascends to the 

 summit, about 4,500 feet above the level of the neighbouring ocean. 

 It was first described as a monotypic genus under the name of 

 Diselma, but afterwards joined with the South American species by 

 Mr. Bentham on the ground that the essential characters of the two 

 are the same. 



Fitzroya Archeri has long been cultivated in the Temperate House 

 in the Royal Gardens at Kew, but no experience of it in the open 

 ground in this country is recorded. As it is associated in its native 

 island with Athrotaxis cupressoides it might be expected to prove 

 us hardy as that species. It is named in compliment to the late 

 Mr. William Archer of Cheshunt, who resided upwards of ten 

 years in Tasmania, during which he sedulously investigated the 

 botany of the district surrounding his property. He returned to 



* The voyage of the "Beagle" will be ever memorable in the annals of science. The 

 vessel was dispatched by the British Government ' ' to complete the survey of Patagonia 

 and Tierra del Fuego, to survey the shores of Chile, Peru and of some islands in the 

 Pacific and to carry a chain chronometrical measurement round the world." Mr. Charles 

 Darwin was invited to accompany the expedition, an invitation which he accepted ; and 

 during the long voyage Avas commenced the series of profound researches which ultimately 

 made a permanent impress on biological science. 



