486 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



pubescent on the margin, each bearing above the middle on the back a lanceolate, 

 subulate, .erect, incurved spine; the two smaller scales lanceolate; the two larger 

 scales oblong, each bearing a solitary seed ; the larger wing oblique, obovate, obtuse, 

 twice as long as the seed, the shorter wing narrow. (A. H.) 



This tree inhabits the western slopes of the Andes of Chile from latitude 35 

 southwards, and was collected by me in February, 1902, on the west end of Lake 

 Nahuel-Huapi at two to three thousand feet. It was growing both on swampy ground, 

 where it attained a considerable size, and on the steep hill - sides above Puerto 

 Blest. The natives of the district call it Alerce,* which is the usual name in South 

 Chile iov Fitzroya patagonica, and use it for making long straight thin shingles, which 

 seem to be extremely durable. Owing to the inaccessible nature of the country and 

 the scarcity of inhabitants, little or no timber has as yet been cut in the dense 

 forests which clothe the shores of this large and picturesque lake. Judging from 

 the climate, which is severe in winter, this beautiful tree should be hardy in the 

 west and south-west of Great Britain and Ireland. According to Dusen and 

 Macloskie,^ it is common in Western Patagonia, extending through Fuegia to 

 Cape Horn, rising up to the snow-line in the mountains, and met with of all 

 sizes, from 2 to 160 feet high. As a rule it never forms forests, but grows either 

 in small thin groves or sparingly mixed with Nothofagus betuloides and Drimys 

 Winteri. 



It was introduced by W. Lobb^ in 1849, but is excessively rare in cultivation, 

 the only specimen we have seen being a small tree 15 feet high, in 1906, at 

 Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow. This tree is narrowly pyramidal in habit, with bark 

 scaling off in long papery ribbons. (H. J. E.) 



LIBOCEDRUS CHILENSIS 



Libocedrus chilensis, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 44 (1847); Lindley, ybr. Hort. Soc. v. 35 (1850); 



Lindley and Paxton, Mower Garden, i. 48, f. 33 (1850); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 252 



(1900). 

 Thuya chilensis, Don, in Lambert, Pinus, ii. 19 (1824); Hooker, London Journ. Bot. ii. 199, t. 4 (1843). 

 Thuya andina, Poeppig et Endlicher, Nov. Gen. et Spec. iii. 17, t. 220 (1845). 



A tree, attaining in Chile 50 feet in height, usually with a short trunk branching 

 into a compact pyramidal head, or becoming at high altitudes a dense shrub. Branch- 

 lets compressed, slender; leaves scale -like in four imbricated ranks, those of the 

 lateral ranks much longer than the others, boat-shaped, free at the apex, and spread- 

 ing for one-third their length, keeled, acute, marked above and below with a white 

 stomatic band ; median leaves, minute, appressed, rounded at the apex, the dorsal 

 with a prominent gland. 



' Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer suggests that this is no doubt a Spanish corruption of the Arabic El An, a name which 

 seems to include any coniferous tree, e.^. Cedrus Libani and Pinus hahpensis. According to Pearce, the tree producing the 

 valuable alerce timber is Fitzroya patagonica. Cf. Hortus Veikhii, 46 (1906). 



* Scott, Princetmun Univ. Exped. Patagonia, viii. 6, 18, 142 (1903). ' Card. Chroit. 1849, p. 563. 



