LIBOCEDRUS TETRAGONA. 



257 



known to be abundant on the Patagonian littoral and the adjacent hills.* 



Its vertical range according to Philippi is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. 



Libocedrus tetragona has long been supposed to yield the valuable Alerze 



timber of the Chilians. This timber is almost indestructible by the weather ; 



boards and shingles that have been exposed for upwards of a hundred 



years have been observed to be worn quite 

 thin but remaining perfectly sound ; it is 

 reddish in colour, easy to work, and is used 

 for every description of carpentry. From the 

 fibrous inner bark is obtained a kind of tow 

 which is much used by the seafaring people 

 of Chiloe and the adjacent coast for making 

 the joints of their skiffs and small craft 

 water-proof. From specimens received from 

 several sources, Sir William Hooker identified 

 the Alerze of the Chilians with Libocedrus 

 tetragona, but this identification was called 

 into question by Richard Pearce, who went 

 to Chile in 1859 as a collector for the 

 Veitchian firm. In a letter to the late 

 Mr. James Veitch, dated from Valparaiso, he 

 writes : "It is Fitzroya patagonica which 

 furnishes the timber known throughout Chile 

 as Alerze, not Libocedrus tetragona which is 

 everywhere known as Cipres. It is the bark of 

 the Fitzroya that the natives use to caulk their 

 boats ; the Libocedrus is a more elegant tree than 

 the Fitzroya, although never attaining its dim- 

 ensions ; its bark is only about half-an-inch 

 thick, whilst that of the Fitzroya is three inches 

 thick, very tough, fibrous and deeply furrowed. 

 The Libocedrus usually grows in swampy places 

 in the hollows of the mountain valleys, 

 Fitzroya on the rocky declivities." 



Libocedrus tetragona w&s introduced in 1849 

 by Messrs. Veitch through their collector 

 William Lobb, but it has now become 

 extremely rare in this country. The climate 

 of the region it inhabits is one of the most 

 equable and also one of the most humid 

 in the world; for upwards of six months 

 of the year rain falls daily, and on rainless 



Fig. 74. Libocedrus tetragon*. days the sky ig sollie ti me s 'overcast for' weeks 

 together ; the average summer temperature is about the same as that of 

 Great Britain, but the mean winter temperature is higher. These climatic 

 phenomena and the localities L. tetragona affects go far to account for its 

 failure in Great Britain.! 



* The foliage of old trees of Libocedrus tetragona -so closely resembles that of Fitzroya 

 patagonia that the two can scarcely be distinguished except by their fruits ; it is thence 

 not improbable that at the southern limit of the Libocedrus the one might be mistaken 

 for the other. 



t The best specimen known to the author is at Kilmacurragh in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, 

 from which materials for description were communicated by Mr. Thomas Acton. 



