Fitzroya 1455 



glabrous, flexile, slender, covered by the decurrent bases of the leaves, which are 

 separated between the whorls by three linear grooves. Older branchlets until 

 the seventh year, stouter, reddish, marked by withered leaves and their remains. 

 Buds ovoid or globose, composed of green scales, which are slightly modified and 

 shortened ordinary leaves. Leaves persistent for several years, in alternating 

 whorls of threes, decurrent by their bases on the branchlets ; their free part spread- 

 ing, spatulate, incurved at the rounded apiculate apex, about ^ in. long ; upper 

 surface concave, with two narrow white stomatic depressions extending from the 

 apex to the middle of the leaf or beyond, and separated by a raised green midrib ; 

 lower surface convex, with a broad green raised midrib, on each side of which is a 

 narrow white stomatic depression often extending from near the apex to the adnate 

 base of the leaf. On the main axes, the leaves are often ^ in. long, adnate in 

 greater part to the branchlet, and becoming reddish brown in the third and 

 fourth years. 



Flowers^ usually dioecious ; sometimes monoecious or hermaphrodite. Staminate 

 flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves towards the apex of the branchlet, cylindrical, 

 subtended at the base by a few scales, composed of 15 to 24 stamens in ternate 

 whorls ; anthers 4-celled. Ovuliferous flowers, solitary and sessile on the ends of 

 short leafy branchlets near the apex of a branch, composed of nine scales, in three 

 alternating whorls ; the three lowermost scales minute and sterile ; the three scales 

 of the intermediate whorl either empty or each bearing a single two-winged ovule ; 

 the uppermost three scales always fertile, each bearing a central three-winged ovule 

 and one to five lateral two- winged ovules ; oblong tubercles at the summit of the 

 axis of the cone, three, yellowish, translucent, about ^ in. long. Cones, scarcely 

 larger when mature than in the flowering stage, sub-globose when closed and about 

 ^ in. in diameter, ripening in one year, with three minute scales at the base of the 

 six large woody scales, each of the latter with a dorsal process, spreading widely to 

 let loose the seeds, which are variable (nine to sixteen) in number (equalling the 

 number of ovules in the flower). Seed with an oblong compressed body and two 

 or three broad lateral membranous wings ; the seed with the wings nearly orbicular 

 and about i to |^ in. in diameter. Cotyledons two. 



This species is a native of South America, occurring in Chile and northern 

 Patagonia. It extends from the coast range immediately north of Valdivia south- 

 ward to the island of Chiloe and the mainland opposite in about lat. 42° 40', and 

 reaches inland to the central cordillera of the Andes. It is known to the inhabitants 

 as alerce^ and covers immense tracts of marshy and peaty ground with extensive 

 woods, which are called alerzales. These woods are widely distributed, the best 

 known being in the coast range of Valdivia, around Lakes Llanquihue and 

 Nahuelhuapi, in the neighbourhood of Puerto Montt, and in the valley of the 

 river MauUin.' 



1 The flowers of Fitzroya, which are complicated and variable, are being investigated at Cambridge by Mr. R. C. Maclean. 

 Monoecious flowers occur in Chilean specimens, as well as on the tree at Hewell Grange. The hermaphrodite flowers of the 

 latter have several whorls of scales ; the scales in the three lowermost whorls bear anthers, those in the upper two whorls 

 bear ovules ; the axis ends in the normal three gland-like processes. 



2 AUrce is used in Spain as the name of the larch ; and is derived from the Arabic, al-arzah, signifying cedar. 



3 Cf. Reiche, Verbreit. Chihn. Conif. 5 (1900), and Pflanunverb. Chile, 63, 238 (1907). 



R 



VI 



