This remarkable plant, to which His Royal Highness Prince Albert has been pleased to permit one of his titles to be given, and which will probably rank among the most highly valued of our hardy evergreen trees, is a native of the mountains of Patagonia, where it was found by Mr. William Lobb, forming a beautiful tree 80 feet high. In the nursery of Messrs. Vettch, of Exeter, it has lived in the open air for four years without shelter, and has all the appearance of being well adapted to the climate of England. The country in which it grows is, indeed, more stormy and cold than any part of Great Britain, as is shown by the following account of it, given by Mr. Lobb in one of his letters to Messrs. Veitcn :

"During my absence I visited a great part of Chiloe, most of the islands in the Archipelago, and the coast of Patagonia for about 140 miles. I went up the Corcobado, Caylin, Alman, Coman, Reloncavi, and other places on the coast, frequently making excursions from the level of the sea to the line of perpetual snow. These bays generally run to the base of the central ridge of the Andes, and the rivers take their rise much further back in the interior. The whole country, from the Andes to the sea, is formed of a succession of ridges of mountains gradually rising from the sea to the central ridge. The whole is thickly wooded from the base to the snow line. Ascending the Andes of Comau, I observed from the water to a considerable elevation the forest is composed of a variety of trees, and a sort of cane so thickly matted together that it formed almost an impenetrable jungle. Further up, among the melting snows, vegetation becomes so much stunted in growth, that the trees, seen below 100 feet high and 8 feet in diameter, only attain the height of 6 inches.

"On reaching the summit no vegetation exists - nothing but scattered barren rocks which appear to rise among the snow, which is 80 feet in depth, and frozen so hard that on walking over it the foot makes but a slight impression.

"To the east as far as the eye can command, it appears perfectly level. To the south, one sees the central ridge of the Andes stretching along for an immense distance, and covered with perpetual snow. To the 'west, the whole of the islands, from Guaytecas to the extent of the Archipelago, is evenly and distinctly to be seen.

"A little below this elevation the scenery is also singular and grand. Rocky precipices stand like perpendicular walls from 200 feet to 800 feet in height, over which roll the waters from the melting snows, which appear to the eye like lines of silver. Sometimes these waters rush down with such force, that rocks of many tons in weight are precipitated from their lofty stations to the depth of 2000 feet. In the forest below everything appears calm and tranquil; scarcely the sound of an animal is heard; sometimes a few butterflies and beetles meet the eye, but not a house or a human being is seen. On the sandy tracts near the rivers, the lion or puma is frequently to be met with; but this animal is perfectly harmless if not attacked".

It is from this wild and uninhabited country that many of the fine plants raised by Messrs. Veitch were obtained, and among them the Saxe-Gothcea, Podocarpus nubigena, Fitz-Roya Pata-gonica, and Libocedrus tetragona. Of these he writes thus :

"The two last (Fitz-Roya and Libocedrus) I never saw below the snow line. The former inhabits the rocky precipices, and the latter the swampy places between the mountains. The first grows to an enormous size, particularly about the winter snow line, where I have seen trees upwards of 100 feet high, and more than 8 feet in diameter. It may be traced from this elevation to the perpetual snows, where it is not more than 4 inches in height With these grow the Tews (Saxe-Gothcea and Podocarpus nubigena), which are beautiful evergreen trees, and, as well as the others, afford excellent timber".

Saxe-Gothea may be described as a genus with the male flowers of a Podocarp, the females of a Dammar, the fruit of a Juniper, the seed of a Dacrydium, and the habit of a Yew. Its fleshy fruit, composed of consolidated scales, enclosing nut-like seed, and forming what is technically called a Galbulus, places it near Juniperus, from which it more especially differs in its anthers not being peltate, nor its fruit composed of a single whorl of perfect scales, and its ovule having two integuments instead of one. In the last respect it approaches Podocarpus, and especially Dacrydium; but the exterior integument of the seed is a ragged abortive membrane, enveloping the base only of the seed, instead of a well-defined cup. In a memorandum in my possession, by Sir William Hooker, I find the distinguished botanist comparing Saxe-Gothaea to a transition from the one-flowered Taxads to the true imbricated Conifers, without however, breaking down the boundary between those orders, as I understand them, but rather confirming the propriety of limiting the Coniferous order to those genera which really bear cones instead of single naked seeds.

In the language of some naturalists, Saxe-Gothaea would be called an osculant genus between Taxads and Conifers.

branch of saxe gotelaea conspicua.

Fig. A. branch of saxe-gotelaea conspicua.

Podocarp with the flowers in a cone - a view which he was probably led to take by the condition of the ovule, and which may be regarded as the most philosophical mode of understanding the nature of this singular genus; to which Nageia may be said to be a slight approach, and which is not distinguishable by habit from a Podocarp.

Saxe Gothaea Conspicua 300116Saxe Gothaea Conspicua 300117Saxe Gothaea Conspicua 300118Saxe Gothaea Conspicua 300119Fructification Of Saxe Gothaea.

Fig. B. Fructification Of Saxe-Gothaea.

The leaves of this plant have altogether the size and general appearance of the English Yew, Taxus baccata ; but they are glaucous underneath, except upon the midrib and two narrow stripes within the edges, which are a pale green. The male flowers consist of spikes appearing at the ends of the branches, in a raceme more or lees elongated. These spikes (fig. B. 1) grow from within a few concave acute scales, which form a kind of involucre at the base. Each male is a solitary membranous anther, with a lanceolate, acuminate, reflexed appendage, and a pair of terminal, scaly imbricated cone (fig. B. 3). The scales are fleshy, firm, lanceolate, and contracted at their base, where they unite into a solid center. All appear to be fertile, and to bear in a niche in the middle, where the contraction is a single inverted ovule (fig. B. 4). The ovule is globular, with 2 integuments beyond the nucleus; the outer integument is loose and thin, and wraps round the ovule in such a way that its two edges can not meet on the underside of the ovule;* the second integument is firm and fleshy; the nucleus is flask-shaped, and protrudes a fungous circular expansion through the foramen.

The fruit (fig. B. 6) is formed by the consolidation of the free scales of the cone, into a solid fleshy mass of a depressed form and very irregular surface, owing to many of the scales being abortive, and erushed by those whose seeds are able to swell; while the ends of the whole retain their original form somewhat, are free, rather spiny, and constitute so many tough, sharp tubercles. The seed (fig. B. 6) is a pale brown, shining ovate, brittle nut, with 2 very slight elevated lines, and a large irregular hilum; at the base it is invested with a short, thin, ragged membrane, which is the outer integument in its final condition. The nucleus lies half free in the interior, the fungous apex having shrivelled up and disappeared. Explanation of the Cuts. - A, a branch with male and female flowers, natural size; B, various details of the fructification, more or leas magnified; 1, a spike of male fiowers; 2, a male or anther part; 3, a twig and young cone; 4, a scale seen from the inside with the inverted ovule, showing the fungous foramen protruding beyond the primine (outer integument); 6, a ripe fruit; 6, a seed showing the 2 slight elevations upon the surface, and the remains of the ragged primine at the base. - Journal London Horticultural Society.