2434

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART HI

2288

2287

margin, and remaining attached to the tree for several years. The male andfemale catkins are on separate trees: the males are 6 or 7 in a cluster, pe-dunculate, terminal, yellow, and oval, with numerous scales; imbricated, long,and recurved at the points: the female catkins are oval, with numerousimbricated wedge-shaped scales, with narrowed oblong brittle points ; andthey are produced at the ends of the branches, where they look at first sightlike an unnatural thickening of the leaves. The cones, when fully ripe, areglobular, from 3 in. to 4 in. in diameter, and of a dark brown colour. Thescales are deciduous, and easily detached. The seeds are 2 to each scale,wedge-shaped, and very large, being more than 1 in. long, with a thick hardshell surrounding an eatable kernel : wings short and obsolete. The maletree has its leaves somewhat differently shaped from those of the female tree,and very much resembling those of A. brasiliana in shape, though of a dif-

III azine: —“Whenwe WJijlIU arrived at the first /jfj

H ill i flII IwmU Araucarias, the sun

ill 111! il ffliMp had j ust set: st 'H

1 HI some time remained

»WSI Wmmm f° r their examina-

tion. What firststruck our atten-2289 tion were, the thick

roots of these trees,which lie spread over the stony andnearly naked soil, like gigantic serpents,2 ft. or 3 ft. in thickness: they are

nearly naked soil, like gigantic serpents, Wlj Mw

2 ft. or 3 ft. in thickness: they are

clothed with a rough bark, similar to 2290

that which invests the lofty pillar-liketrunks of from 50 ft. to 100 ft. in height.

The crown of foliage occupies only about the upper quarter of the stem, andresembles a large depressed cone. The lower branches, eight or twelve innumber, form a circle round the trunk : they diminish till they are but four orsix in a ring, and are of most regular formation., all spreading out horizontally,and bending upwards only at their tips. They are thickly invested with leavesthat cover them like scales, and are sharp-pointed, above an inch broad, andof such a hard and woody texture, that it requires a sharp knife to sever them