270 NOTICES OF CERTAIN ORNAMENTAL PLANTS 



been brought to England alive by Captain Jones, of the ' St. 

 George ' merchantman ; and among them the plant at the head 

 of this article, which grows abundantly on the islands of Aniteura, 

 New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. In a memorandum that 

 accompanied the plant received by the Society, Mr. Moore re- 

 marl<s that tlie tree is " apparently distinct from A. excelsa. It 

 differs from that species in liaving a more compact habit when 

 old, and in being less rigid and more graceful when young, in 

 the scales of the cone having a longer and more reflexed mucro, 

 and in tlieir gibbous, not wedge-shaped form, as in A. excelsa. In 

 the island of Aniteura this plant has become scarce, the English 

 traders having cut it down for ships' spars. I only saw one 

 plant, and tliis was ' tabooed,' or rendered sacred, by the natives ; 

 but in New Caledonia, on the south-east coast, whole forests com- 

 posed of this alone were observed. In such situations the tops 

 are not unlike basaltic columns, and were actually taken for 

 sucli by the naturalists who accompanied Cook. A coral reef 

 connects the Isle of Pines with that part." Mr. Moore adds, 

 that it is " singular enough the first plant of this, noticed by 

 Cook (described by that navigator, in his account of New Cale- 

 donia, 'as an elevation like a tower'), still stands, and is in a 

 flourishing condition. Its appearance now is exactly that of a 

 well-proportioned factory chimney of great height." 



This plant is mentioned by D. Don in the Linnean Society's 

 Transactions, vol. xviii. p, 164, as having been called Araucaria 

 Cookii by Dr. Bi'own ; it was once named Cupressus columnaris 

 by Forster {Florid. Austral., No. 351). 



The accompanying figure of its cone shows at once how very 

 distinct this is from either A. excelsa or Cunnirighamii. In ad- 

 dition to the greater length of the reflexed appendages on the 

 scales of A. Cookii, to which Mr. Moore has drawn attention, 

 it is to be obseived that the scales themselves do not terminate 

 in a hard, woody, truncated extremity, as in those two species, 

 but are wholly surrounded by a thin wing ; the effect of which 

 is to destroy tiie knobby appearance of their cones, and to give 

 it a softness and evenness peculiar to itself. 



Of this interesting plant the Society received two specimens in 

 a living state, one of which was presented to the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Kew. 



12. DAMMARA OBTUSA. 

 D. obtusa ; foliis oblongis apice rotundatis, strobilis oblongo- 

 cylindraceis (3-uncialibus), squamarum apicibus convexis 

 arete adpressis quadruplo latioribus quam longis. 



Of this remarkable species a plant has been received alive. 



