The Anatomy of Saxegothaea conspicua, Lindl. 209 
THE ANATOMY OF SAXEGOTH/EA CONSPICUA LINDL. 
By W. Stiles, B.A. 
(Late Scholar of Emmanuel College, Cambridge). 
[Text-Figs. 28—34] 
Introduction. 
HE Coniferous genus Saxegothaea contains one species, S. 
conspicua, found native only in wet woods on the upper 
slopes of the Andes of Chili, where it was discovered by William 
Lobb, a collector for Messrs. Veitch, who brought it to this 
country in the year 1849. In its native habitat it is a tree of Yew¬ 
like habit growing to a height of from twenty to thirty feet; in 
cultivation in Europe it forms a low bushy or shrubby tree 1 . 
Owing to the fact that the attempts to cultivate it in this country 
have not been very successful, only a few plants of any size exist 
in Britain. 
The vegetative parts of the tree, as already indicated, have the 
external appearance of those of Taxus, but, on the other hand, 
both the micro- and megasporangia are borne on sporophylls 
arranged spirally in cones. 
The plant was first described and named in 1851 by Lindley 2 , 
who regarded it as exhibiting a transition from the Taxaceae to the 
Pinaceae, with marked relationships to Podocarpus, Dacrydium 
and Agathis. Under the name of Squamataxus Albertiana is was 
described by Nelson 3 writing under the nom-de-plume of “Senilis.’ 
From the first, the plant has been regarded as a species of a 
monotypic genus of the Podocarpeae, although Carribre 4 classed it 
as an anomalous genus of doubtful position. 
Several short notes on the external features have been 
published by Masters 5 which to some extent amplify Lindley’s 
original description. Later accounts of the plant occur mostly in 
horticultural or systematic works, the most complete of these being 
found in Veitch’s Manual of the Coniferae and in Pilger’s Mono¬ 
graph in Engler’s Pflanzenreich. 6 A few words by Bertrand and 
Bernard on the internal structure of the leaf, a description of the 
1 Veitch’s Manual of the Conifers, p. 158, London, 1900. 
2 Lindley, J. (17), p. 258; (18), p. Ill ; (19), p. 229a. 
3 Senilis, J. (26), p. 168. 
4 Carriere, E. A. (8), p. 683. 
3 Masters, M. T. (20), p. 6S4 ; (21), p. 782; (22), p. 246; (23), p. 10. 
6 Pilger, R. (25), p. 42. 
