RARE EVERGREEN TREES. 



541 



of nature, showing the young branch and 

 leaves, (fig. 120) and also another (fig. 121,) 

 which is a portrait of a specimen growing 



the least protection ; it stands in rather an 

 exposed situation, on a raised mound, in 

 which the tree delights. The soil is loam, 

 with a small portion of poor peat, and the 

 plant has never been watered, even in the 

 hottest season we have had. A wet 

 sub-soil is certain death to the Araucaria in 



Fig. 120. Branch of the Araucaria, or Chili Pine, one-sixth 

 of the natural size. 



at Kew Garden, England, taken in 1838, 

 when it was only 12 feet high. We also add 

 from the London Horticultural Magazine, 

 the following memorandum respecting a 

 tree at Dropynore, taken last summer, 

 (1846.) 



" The following is the height and di- 

 mensions of the finest specimen we have 

 of this noble tree, and probably the largest 

 in Europe ; height 22 feet 6 inches ; diam- 

 eter of the spread of branches near the 

 ground, 10 feet 6 inches ; girth of the stem 

 near the ground, 2 feet 10 inches ; five feet 

 above the ground, 2 feet. The tree has made 

 a rapid growth this season, and promises to 

 get a foot higher, or more, before autumn ; 

 it is about 16 vears old, and has never had 



Fig. 121. The Chili Fine, or Araucania tree. 



very wet seasons. A plant here, from a 

 cutting, made a leading shoot in the year 

 1833, and is now 19 feet 6 inches in height, 

 and has every appearance of making a 

 splendid plant." 



In Scotland, also, it stands without the 

 slighest protection, and Ave have before us, 

 in the Revue Horticole, an account of a 

 plantation of these trees at Brest, in the 

 north of France, a climate very much like 

 our own. The soil is a light sandy loam, 

 poor and ihin. Yet the trees, fully exposed, 

 or sheltered only by a small belt of pines, 

 have proved perfectly hardy, resistino- with- 

 out injury, even the rigorous winter of 1829- 

 30, when the thermometer was several de- 

 grees below zero of Fahrenheit. " The largest 



