2442

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

easily be mistaken for distinct species. The bark aboundsin turpentine; but there is none in the wood, which is white,tough, and close-grained. Captain Cook , de-scribing the tree when he discovered it, says : —

“ The wood is white, close-grained, tough, andlight. Turpentine had exuded out of most ofthe trees, and the sun had inspissated it into aresin, which was found sticking to the trunks,and lying about the roots. These trees shootout their branches like all other pines; withthis difference, that the branches of these aremuch smaller and shorter, so that the knotsbecome nothing when the tree is wrought for use. I tooknotice that the largest of them had the smallest andshortest branches, and were crowned, as it were, at the top by a spreadinghead, like a bush. This was what led some on board into the extravagantnotion that they were basaltes.” ( Cook’s Second Voyage,\ ol. ii. p. 149 ,, a squoted by Lambert.) In Captain Hunter’s Journal of the Transactions at PortJackson and Norfolk Island , also quoted by Mr. Lambert, it is mentioned thatthese trees grow there to a prodigious height, and are proportionably thick,beingfrom I50ft.to 200 ft.high, and from 12ft.or 14ft. to 28 ft. or 30ft.incircumference. “ These trees,” Captain Hunter continues, “from their immenseheight, have a very noble appearance, being, in general, very straight, and freefrom branches to 40 ft., and sometimes 60 ft., above theground.” When some of these trees were felled, CaptainHunter observed that “most of them discharged a consider-able quantity of clear water, which continued to flow at everyfresh cut of the axe.” He adds, thatthere was no turpentine in them, but whatcirculated “ between the bark and thebody of the tree, and which is soluble inwater;” also, that the timber is veryshort-grained and spongy. He states thatthe wood is so heavy, that 5 trees out of6, when cut down, sank in water; but that,out of 37 trees cut down for repairing aship, 27 were found defective. In green-houses near London , the rate of growthis 1ft. or more a year; and a tree in thepalm-house of Messrs. Loddiges attainedthe height of 40 ft., when it was stoppedin its progress by the glass roof, but, in general, this is thecase when they are less than half that height.

Geography, History , fc. The Araucaria excelsa is a nativeof New Caledonia , in Queen Charlotte’s Foreland, and ona small neighbouring island, which is a mere sand-bank,only J of a mile in circuit; also on the Isle of Pines , where it was foundby Captain Cook . It was subsequently found by Dr. Brown, when onboard the Investigator, with Captain Flinders, growing in great abundanceon several parts of the east coast of New Holland; but it was there notabove 60 ft. or 70 ft. in height. It was introduced, according to Lambert, byGovernor Philip; but, according to the Hortus Kewensis, by Sir JosephBanks , in 1793. The plant is not uncommon in green-house collections,in most of which, in a few years, it grows as high as the roof will admit.One at Kew, which was at one time the largest in the country, was triedin the open air, and died the first winter. One in the conservatory inthe Hammersmith Nursery, which was planted in April, 1804, in seven yearsrose as high as the glass, and was obliged to be cut down; and this has beenthe case repeatedly since. It has now wide-spreading, pendulous, deep green