2436

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

FART III.

be the case with plants in the climate of London; though scarcely any ofthese have yet had full justice done to them. The largest specimen in Europe,which is that at Kew, and of which jig. 2293. is a portrait taken in 1836, wasthen 12 ft. high, after having been above 40 years planted; but young plants,established in the open ground at Dropmore, make shoots, occasionally, ofabove a foot in length. It may be remarked of the araucaria in Britain, thatyoung plants sometimes remain a whole year without making any shootwhatever; and that, at other times, the same plants require two years toproduce one shoot; that is, the shoot continues slowly increasing in length,from the midsummer of one year to that of the year following.

Geography. The araucaria is a native of South America, in a part ofthe Andes inhabited by the Araucanians, a people who are said by Molinato pride themselves on their name, its signification being frank, or free. (SeeMolina’s History of Chili , &c.) The tree is found in large forests on themountains Caramavida and Naguelbuta,in Chili,belonging to the Llanista, Peg-huen, and Araucano Indians. This chain, or Cordillera, of the Andes, saysPavon, as quoted by Mr. Lambert, “ offers to the view, in general, a rocky soil,though in parts wet and boggy, on account of the abundance of rain and snowwhich falls in these regions, similar to many provinces in Spain.” It is alsofound in the neighbourhood of Concepcion, in Chili. Poeppig says : — “ Thearaucaria forest of Antuco is the most northerly that is known in Chili; sothat the northern boundary of this king of all the extra-tropical American treesmay be estimated at 36° south latitude. The extreme southern limit is notso clearly ascertained ; which is not surprising, when we consider how little,comparatively, is known of Western Patagonia : it seems probable, however,that it does not stretch far beyond lat. 46°. Between Antuco and Valdivia,this tree only grows among the Andes, and, as the Indians assert, solely ontheir western declivities, and nowhere lower than from 1500 ft. to 2000 ft.below the snow line, up to which they frequently reach. Further to thesouth, the araucaria appears at a lower elevation ; and, in the country of theCuncos, and about Osorno, is said to occur on mountains of a very moderatealtitude, near the sea. The Corcovado, a mountain that rises opposite Chiloe,is said to be studded, from its foot to the snow line, with large groups ofthese beautiful trees. Of all other vegetation, the araucarian forests are asbare as the pine woods, offering but few plants which can interest the botanist.Steep rocky ridges, where there is no water, are its favourite habitat.” (Pcepp.in Comp. Bot. Mag.)

History. The Spaniards, having settlements in the immediate vicinity ofthe country of the Araucanians, employed Don Francisco Dendariarena, in1780, to examine the trees, with a view of discovering if any of them weresuitable for ship-building. The result of his experiments was to select thisspecies (the Peghuen of the natives), which was accordingly made use of torepair the Spanish squadron, then lying at anchor in the port of Talcaguano.The Abbate Molina, who was then writing his Civil and Natural History ofChili (published at Bologna in 1782) supposed the tree to be a Pinus; andhe described it in his work under the name of Plnus Araucana. In 1782,the Spanish government commissioned Don Joseph Pavon to search for thistree; and he, finding both its flowers and fruit, ascertained that it was a distinctgenus, and called it Araucaria imbricata. Don Joseph Pavon (who had pre-viously visited Chili, in company with Don Hippolito Ruiz and the Frenchbotanist Dombey, in 1777,) sent specimens of Araucaria imbricata to France, tothe care of Dombey, who showed them to MM. Lamarck and De Jussieu, inParis; the former of whom called it Dombeya chilensis, while Jussieu re-tained the name of Araucaria. Don Joseph Pavon, however, complains, inhis account of this tree, published in the first volume of the Memoirs of theRoyal Academy of Sciences at Madrid, that both Jussieu and Lamarck madeseveral mistakes in their description of the botanical characteristics of thespecies, which had been avoided by both Molina and himself. In 1795,Captain Vancouver touched at the coast of Chili; and Mr. Menzies, who