LIBOCEDRUS MACROLEPIS. 255 



spine at the back ; the fertile scales bearing two seeds each with an 

 oblique membraneous wing. Kirk, Forest Flora of New Zealand, 

 p. 157, t. 82. 



Libocedrus Doniana, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 43 (1847). Carriere, Traite 

 Couif. ed. II. 85. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 454. Hooker fil, Handb. 

 N. Zeal. Fl. 256. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 182. 



Tlmia Doniana, Hooker, W. in Loud. Journ. Bot. I. 571, t, 18 (1842). 



Although not hardy in this country, this beautiful tree claims 

 notice on account of its being in cultivation as a conservatory plant 

 in botanic and occasionally in private gardens. Its habitat is 

 restricted to a small area in the northern portion of the North 

 Island of New Zealand, but it has now become extremely rare in 

 many districts. The wood is of great beauty, straight in grain, and 

 of great strength ; it is highly valued for the manufacture of house 

 furniture and ornamental woodwork. The species is dedicated to the 

 Scottish botanist, David Don. 



Closely resembling Libocedrus Doniana, and from which it is not 

 separated by any marked distinctive characters, is a form or variety 

 which has received the name of L. Bidndllii. It is described as 

 being " smaller in all its parts " than L. Doniana, and is spread 

 generally over New Zealand from Harauk's Gulf southwards to Catlin's 

 River, showing a preference for mountain and hilly districts, ascending 

 in places to 4,000 feet above the level of the sea.* 



DAVID Dox (1800 1840) was a native of Forfar. His father, the proprietor ot a 

 nursery at that place, was well known as a good, practical botanist, and thence able 

 to impart to his son an elementary scientific knowledge of the plants of his native 

 .country. One of David's earliest publications was the description of a number of 

 plants which were either entirely new or had been only found in a few localities 

 where they had been collected by his father ; this was a valuable contribution to 

 the botany of our native country, and which soon brought the author under the 

 notice of the leading naturalists of that period. He then published in the Trans- 

 actions of the Linnean Society a monograph of the genus Saxifraga, and was shortly 

 afterwards appointed Librarian to the Society. In 1836 he succeeded Professor 

 Burnett in the chair of botany at King's College, London, a position which he held 

 till his death. His numerous works are sufficient proof of his industry ; among 

 them are his papers in the "Transactions of the Linnean Society, "in one of which 

 he described for the first time Abies bracteata and three Pines from South California 

 from materials collected by Dr. Coulter ; and in another lie founded the genera 

 Cryptomeria and Athrotaxis. He rendered much assistance to Mr. Lambert in the- 

 preparation of the later editions of his "Genus Pinus,"in which he published for the 

 first time descriptions of several coniferous trees previously unknown, including 

 Citpressus nootkatensis, Thuia plicata (gigantea), Libocedrus ( Thuia] chilensis, Juniperus 

 recurva and three or four species of Podocarpus. Towards the end of 1840 a 

 malignant tumour appeared on his lip which caused his death at the early age of forty. 



Libocedrus macrolepis. 



A tree of which the dimensions attained by it have not been 

 published. Branchlets elongated, ramified distichously and alternately 

 into frondose branchlet systems tri-pinnately divided. Leaves in decussate 

 pairs, dimorphic ; on the axial growths the lateral pairs linear, acute, 

 strongly keeled, free at the tip ; the dorsiventral pair much smaller, 

 scale-like, triangular and almost concealed by the lateral pair; on the 

 lateral and youngest growths much smaller and sub-equal, the Literal 

 * Kirk, Forest Flora of New Zealand, pp. 160, 161. 



