202 CUPRESSUS BENTHAMII. 



Cupressus Benthamii, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 59 (1847). Parlatore, D. C. 

 Prodr. XVI. 472. Hemsley, Biol. Centr. Amer. III. 183. Gordon, Pinet, ed. II. 80. 

 Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXXI. 338. 



C. Lindleyi, Klotsch, ex Endlicher, loc. cif. 



C. lusitanica Benthamii, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 155 



var. Knightiana. 



This differs from the typical 0. Benthamii in its more symmetrical 

 habit especially in the regularity of its branching, in its glaucescent 

 foliage and also in the more prominent umbo of the cone scales. 



C. Benthamii Knightiana, Masters in Gard. Chron. XVI. ser. 3 (1894), p. 668 ; 

 and in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXXI. 340. C. Knightiana, Hort. C. elegans, Hort. 



The information we possess respecting Cupressus Benthamii as seen 

 in its native country and its geographical distribution is vague and 

 disjointed. Not much more can be said of it than that it is spread 

 over the tierra fria or alpine region of Mexico at 6,000 feet elevation 

 and upwards, from Orizaba northwards to the Sierra Madre, and that 

 herbarium specimens have been gathered in different places and at 

 different times by botanical explorers of the region, among the earlier 

 of whom was Karl Theodor Hartweg while collecting seeds and plants 

 for the Horticultural Society of London, 1839 1843, through whom it 

 was introduced.* The variety Knightiana was distributed by Messrs. 

 Knight and Perry, the predecessors of Messrs. James Veitch and Sons 

 at the Royal Exotic Nursery, who state in their Synopsis that its 

 origin was unknown to them ; it is the most elegant of the half- 

 hardy Cypresses, and is still to be found in warm sheltered spots 

 in Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall, and also at Powerscourt in 

 Ireland where there is a remarkably beautiful specimen in perfect 

 health. The species was named after the late Mr. George Bent ham, 

 one of the most eminent of British systematic botanists. 



GEORGE BENTHAM (1800 1884), the son of Sir Samuel Bentham, was born at 

 Plymouth, his father being at that time Inspector of the Royal Dockyards. While 

 still a boy he spent some time at St. Petersburg where he acquired a knowledge 

 of the Russian language. From 1814 to 1826 he lived with his family in the neighbour- 

 hood of Montpellier, and there he began .his botanical career by a practical examination 

 of the wild plants of Angouleme and Montauban, quickly followed by further 

 researches into the flora of the Pyrenees. His first work, "A Catalogue of Plants 

 indigenous to the Pyrenees and Bas Languedoc " was published in 1826. Returning 

 to England in that year he first turned his attention to the law, but speedily 

 devoted himself exclusively to botany. He attached himself to the Horticultural 

 Society of London in the days when that Society did excellent service by dispatching 

 collectors to various countries, and together with Lindley he undertook the 

 determination of the many species introduced by Douglas Hartweg and others ; he was 

 Secretary to the Society from 1829 to 1840. From the time his connection with the 

 Society ceased, up to within a year or two of his death, Bentham was constantly at work, 

 elaborating monographs of genera and orders or preparing floras of various countries. 

 Among the most important of these elaborations mention must be made of his mono- 

 graphs of the Labiatfe and Scrophularine in De Candolle's "Prodromus" and the floras 

 of Hong-Kong and Australia in the series of Colonial floras projected by Sir William 

 Hooker and worked out at Kew. But by far the most enduring monument of 



* The only tree raised from the originally-introduced seeds known to the author is at Fota 

 Island, near Cork, where it is recognised under the name of Cupressus Lindleyi ; it is a superb 

 specimen upwards of 80 feet high, with a trunk three feet in diameter near the ground. 



