252 L1BOCEDEUS CHILENSIS. 



fruit are also of unequal size and in the closed fruit meet at their edges 

 (that is to say they are placed in a valvate position). In Thuia the 

 scales of the fruit are of equal size or nearly so and overlap (imbricated). 

 This difference in the structure of the fruit is by far the most important 

 distinction, and is admitted by all authors since the genus was founded 

 by Endlicher, to be sufficient for its retention. 



Eight species of Libocedrus are known to science ; their habitats 

 are widely remote from each other, except 

 in the case of two inhabiting Chile and 

 two in New Zealand ; one is a native of 

 California, one of southern China ; one has 

 been discovered in New Guinea, and one in 

 New Caledonia. All the species that have 

 been applied to any economic nse yield 

 highly valuable timber ; the wood is durable, 

 Fig. 7:3. open and closed strobile straight - grained and fragrant, and is suitable 



of Libocedrus decurrens. 



for many constructive purposes whether exposed 

 to the weather or within doors. 



Libocedrus is derived from Xi/3aj/oj, the name of a tree from which 

 the ancients obtained frankincense but which has not been satisfactorily 

 identified by modern botanists, and xeSpoQ, cedar, juniper. 



Libocedrus chilensis. 



A medium-sized tree of pyramidal outline, the trunk usually free of 

 branches near the ground and covered with roughish, fissured, dark 

 brown bark. In Great Britain the oldest trees have a broadly 

 columnar habit, the outer bark of the trunk peeling off in small 

 flakes and exposing a light brown inner cortex. Branches with 

 smooth reddish brown bark, ascending and much ramified at their 

 distal end ; branchlets slender, distichously ramified into frondose 

 systems similar to those in Thuia. Leaves of the axial growths linear 

 and adnate except at the acute, inflexed tip ; of the lateral growths 

 the dorsi ventral pairs scale-like ; the lateral pairs oblong, acute with a 

 white stomatiferous band on both sides. Staminate flowers with 

 eight ten anthers. Strobiles usually solitary, terminal, composed of 

 four ovate-oblong scales of which the fertile two are twice as broad 

 as the sterile two, and bear one two seeds each. 



Libocedrus chilensis, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 44 (1847). Gay, Fl. Chil. V- 

 406 (1849). Lindley in Gard. Chron. (1850) p. 439, with tig. Carriere, Traite 

 Conif. ed. II. 89. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 455. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 180. 

 Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 42. 



Thuia chilensis Don in Lambert's Genus Finns, ed. I., Vol. II. 19 (1824). 

 Hooker, W. in Lond. Journ. Bot. II 199, t. 4. 



Eng. Chilian Arbor Vifee. Fr. Thuia de Chile. Ital. Albero della Vita di 

 Chile Chil. Cipres de Araucano. 



Libocedrus chilensis is common in some of the valleys and along 

 the lower slopes of the Chilian Andes from Valparaiso southwards to 

 Valdivia. The wood is soft and easy to work, and is highly valued 

 by the inhabitants for indoor carpentry on account of its fragrance. 



