Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol03B.djvu/85

I. Ultimate branchlets on mature trees tetragonal, bearing leaves all alike and uniform in size.

1. Libocedrus tetragona, Endlicher. Chile, Patagonia.

Leaves spreading.

2. Libocedrus Bidwilli, Hooker. New Zealand.

Leaves closely appressed.

II. Ultimate branchlets flattened, with leaves of two kinds; lateral boat-shaped, median flat and appressed.

A. Median and lateral leaves equal in length.

3. Libocedrus decurrens, Torrey. Oregon, California, W. Nevada.

Leaves green on both surfaces.

4. Libocedrus macrolepis, Bentham et Hooker. China, Formosa.

Leaves glaucous on the lower surface, with white stomatic bands.

B. Lateral leaves much longer than the median leaves.

5. Libocedrus chilensis, Endlicher. Chile.

Median leaves minute, rounded at the'apex, with a conspicuous gland.

6. Libocedrus Doniana, Endlicher. New Zealand.

Median leaves ovate, acute, mucronate, scarcely glandular.

The two following species, imperfectly known and not introduced, will only be mentioned here. They belong to the last section:—

7. Libocedrus papuana, F.v. Mueller.^[1] New Guinea.

8. Libocedrus austro-caledonica, Brongniart et Gris.^[2] New Caledonia.

 

LIBOCEDRUS TETRAGONA

 

Libocedrus tetragona, Endlichler, Syn. Conif. 44 (1847); Lindley and Paxton, Flower Garden, i. 47, f. 32 (1850); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 256 (1900).

Libocedrus cupressoides, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. x. 134 (1896).

Thuya tetragona, Hooker, London Journ. Bot. iii. 148, t. 4 (1844).

Pinus cupressoides, Molina, Saggio Sulla Storia Naturale del Chile, 168 (1782).

 

A tree^[3] attaining in South America, though rarely, a height of 160 feet. Branchlets tetragonal. Leaves equal in size and uniform in shape in the four ranks; those on the ultimate branchlets about ¹⁄₁₂ inch long, adnate only at the base, the remaining part free and spreading; ovate, acute, or rounded at the apex, keeled on the back, concave and glaucescent above; those on primary axes larger, adnate for the most of their length, the apices only being free and spreading.

Cones on long branchlets, less than ¹⁄₂ inch long, brown. Scales four, minutely

1. Trans. Roy. Soc. Victoria, i, 32 (1889).
2. Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xviii. 140 (1871).
3. This tree has been confused by travellers with Fitzroya patagonica, which has very similar foliage when old. In the former, the leaves gradually taper to a rounded or acute apex; in the latter they are broadest in their upper third, close to the rounded apex. The cones are entirely different.