LIBOCEDRUS DECURRENS. 253 



The earliest published notice of this tree occurs in Lambert's " Genus 

 Pinus," loc. cit. supra, where a brief description is given by David Don 

 from materials found in the herbarium of the Spanish botanists, Ruiz 

 and Pavon, which had been acquired by Mr. Lambert. Many years 

 afterwards the species became better known from herbarium specimens 

 communicated to Sir William Hooker by Dr. Gillies, of Mendoza,* by 

 Bridges, and by Mr. James Veitch, Senr., of Exeter, through his 

 collector, William Lobb. It was introduced by Messrs. Low, of Clapton, 

 in 1847 ; Libocedrus chilensis must, however, be pronounced an 

 unsatisfactory tree for the British climate ; it loses its lower branches 

 at an early age, and even in sheltered situations rarely escapes injury 

 in severe winters. 



Libocedrus decurrens. 



A lofty tree 100 150 feet high with the trunk sometimes 7 8 feet 

 in diameter, covered with loose, fibrous, cinnamon-red bark and sparingly 

 furnished along the upper portion with stout branches that are at first 

 horizontal, but soon turn upwards and form secondary stems that are 

 similarly branched. In Great Britain a tall tree of columnar habit, the 

 trunk large in proportion to its appendages and covered with reddish 

 brown bark that peels off in longitudinal shreds. Primary branches 

 short, spreading or ascending ; ramification of secondary branches mostly 

 lateral, the bark marked by a pale ring at every branching; in the 

 branchlet systems the distichous branching is constant and in one plane. 

 Leaves persistent three four years, glandular, narrowly oblong, acute, 

 decurrent and adnate except at the acute tip, the larger and longer 

 lateral pairs sharply keeled and nearly covering the smaller dorsiventral 

 pair, dark glossy green, of a shade almost peculiar to this species. 

 Staminate flowers small, club-shaped, composed of twelve sixteen stamens 

 each with a suborbicular connective. Strobiles pendulous, ovoid-cylindric,, 

 about an inch long, consisting of six scales, the lowermost pair much the 

 smallest, the fertile middle pair as large again as the upper two which 

 are connate. Seeds in pairs at the base of the two larger scales each 

 with a hatchet-shaped membraneous wing. 



Libocedrus decurrens, Torrey. Plant. Fremont, Smiths. Contrib. VI. 7, t. 3 (1850). 

 Lindley in Gard. Chron. (1853) p. 695. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 456. 

 Murray in The Garden, II. (1872), p. 540, with figs. Nicholson in Woods and 

 Forests (1884), p. 190. Brewei and Watson, Bot. Califor. II. 116. Hoopes, 

 Evergreens, 309, with fig. Gorden, Pinet. ed. II. 181. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 28, with 

 fig. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 219. Sargent, Silva N. Amer. X. t. 534. 



Thuia gigantea, Carriere in Van Houtte's Fl. des Serres, IX. 199, with fig. ;. 

 and Traite Conif. ed. I. 105 ; ed. II. 112 (in part, not Nuttall). 



T. Craigiana, Murray in Rep. Oreg. Exped. 2, t. 5. 



Heyderia decurrens, Koch. Dendrol. II. 179. 



Eng. California!! Incense Cedar. Amer. White Cedar, Bastard Cedar, Post Cedar. 

 Fr. Cedre blanc de Californie. Germ. Californische Flussceder. Ital. Cedro bianco- 

 della California. 



Libocedrus decurrens is widely distributed along the western slopes 

 of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains between 3,000 and 

 7,500 feet elevation from Oregon to near the Mexican boundary ; also 

 along the California!! coast range and southwards into the peninsula of 

 Lower California. It nowhere forms pure forests, but occurs scattered 



* His name is commemorated by the Liliaceous -genus Gilliesia. 



