ATHROTAXIS 



ATHROTAXIS. CONIFERS. 



223 



The three species which constitute this interesting genus of conifers 

 are all natives of the Western Mountains of Tasmania, and were all 

 introduced about 1857. Owing to their tenderness, they can best be 

 grown in such places as Cornwall and Ireland, where, however, their 

 distinctness and beauty are very marked. Their nearest relatives are the 

 Sequoias of Western N. America, and Cryptomeria of Japan, and 

 remarkable as is the fact of the widely separate habitats of these three 

 allies, still more remarkable is it, that during the Eocene period Athro- 

 taxis formed part of the British flora. 



ATHROTAXIS CUPRKSSOIDES. 



They are small evergreen trees or shrubs with scale-like or awl-shaped 

 leaves, closely and spirally arranged. The flower-catkins are unisexual, 

 but both male and female are on the same tree. Cones woody, roundish, 

 composed of numerous scales, which are closely packed, tapered at the 

 base and swollen at the top, where they end in a point. It is in the 

 last respect where the cones differ from those of Sequoia. Seeds much 

 winged. 



A. CUPRESSOIDES, D. Don. Branchlets round and cord-like, the final sub- 

 divisions about in. diameter, bearing scale-like leaves which are very closely 

 flattened to the twig, blunt or rounded at the apex, the bases overlapping, the 



