CHAP. CXI II.

CONl'FElliE. AHAUCa'rIA.

2443

2302

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■rfm

5

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branches, and a trunk upwards of 6 in. in diameter. One at Dropmore, in theopen ground, was 14 ft. high in 1837 ; being protected during winter, so as toexclude the frost. One in M. Boursault’s garden in Paris, which was keptin a conservatory during winter, and turned out during summer, was, in 1828,12 ft. high ; and, of this tree, the vignette Jig. 2302. contains a portrait; it hassince been removed to the conservatory at the Jardin des Plantes.

The timber of the Araucaria imbricata was found by Governor King to besound only in the lower part of the trunk; but, in the upper part, tooknotty, hard, and brittle to be useful; for which reason, no dependencecould be placed on it for masts and yards. It is, however, he says, verysuitable for buildings; and, when employed m erecting houses, it standsthe weather very well. “ The turpentine, which exudes freely from thebark, is of a milk-white glutinous substance ; but it is rather remarkable thatthere is none in the timber. It was tried in paying boats, and for other pur-poses, but without success, as it would neither melt nor burn ; it was alsotried to make pitch or tar, by burning the old trees; but, there being no tur-pentine in the wood, all efforts of this kind were found useless.” The frondsmay be propagated by cuttings; and, when these have attained 5 or 6 years’growth, our opinion is, that, if the branches were pegged down, an erect shootwould arise from the collar; but this has scarcely been proved, except in thecase of a plant observed by us in 1801, at Mongewell, near Wallingford, inBerkshire. A necessary precaution with this, and with every other speciesof the more valuable of the dbietinte, is, during a storm of snow, occasionallyto shake from the branches what adheres to them in masses. This should bedone not only with young trees, but with trees in every stage of their growth ;for the largest cedars, even in the climate of London, occasionally have theirbranches broken, in consequence of being heavily loaded with snow near theirextremities.

“ It is a highly interesting fact,” says Dr Lindley, “ that a plant verynearly the same as this araucaria certainly once grew in Great Britain.Remains of it have been found in the lias of Dorsetshire, and have beenfigured in the Fossil Flora, under the name of Araucaria primte'va.” {Penn.Cyc., ii. p. 249.)

t 4. A. Cunningha'm// Ait. Cunningham’s Araucaria, or the Moreton

Bay Pine.

Identification. Ait. MS. ; Swt. Hort. Brit, p. 475 .; Lamb. Pin., 3.

Synonyms. Altfng/a Cunningh&rmY G. Don in Loud. Hort. Brit., p. 408.

Engravings. Lamb. Pin., S. t. 96.j our Jig. 2304. to our usual scale ; and Jig. 2303. of the natural size.Spec. Char., <5’c. Decandrous. Leaves of the young tree vertically com-pressed, spinuloso-mucronate, straight; those of the full-grown tree lance-olate, acute, imbricated. Cones ovate; scales acuminate at the apex,