132 
GLEANIJS^GS AXD ORIGINAL MEMORANDA. 
403. Araucakia Cookii. B. Brotvn. A very large greenliouse Coniferous tree from New 
Caledonia. Introduced by Mr. C. Moore. 
In the year 1850 Mr. Charles Moore^ the Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Sydney, was enabled to pay a short 
visit to New Caledonia and the neighbouring islands of the South Pacific, in H.M.S, *^ Havannah ;" and, notwithstanding 
many difficulties, succeeded, through the very great kindness of Captain Erskine, in collecting and bringing safe to Sydney 
a considerable number of very valuable plants, seeds, and specimens. Some of them have been brought to England 
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 A niteura, New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. In a memorandum that accompanied the 
plant received by the Society, Mr. Moore remarks that the tree is " apparently distinct from J. exceha. It differs from 
that species in having 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 their gibbous, not wedge-shaped 
form, as in J. excelm. In the island of Aniteura this plant has become scarce, the English traders having cut 
it down for ships' spars. T only saw one plant, and this was ^ tahooedy^ or rendered sacred, by the natives; but 
in New Caledonia, on the south-east coast, whole forests composed of this alone were observed. In such situations the tops 
are not unlike basaltic columns, and were actually taken for such by the naturalists who accompanied Cook. A coral reef 
connects the Isle of Pines with that part." Mr. ^loore adds, that it is ** smgulai' enough the first plant of this, noticed by 
Cook (described by that navigator, in his account of New^ Caledonia, * 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. 
The cone shows how very distinct this is from either A. excelsa or Canninghamii. In addition 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 observed 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 the knobby appearance of their cone, 
and to give it a softness and evenness peculiar to itself.'* — Journ. of Ilort, &c., vol. vi. 
404. Calanthe VERATUiroLiA. B. Brown; var, amtralis {alias C. australis Ilort.) A greenliouse 
terrestrial Orchid from New Holland, with white j9.owers changing to buff, Tlowcrs in September. 
Eeintroduced by Mr. C. Moore, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden^ Sydney. 
This plant was originally found by the late Allan Cunningham in August 1822; whilst on an excursion to the 
Illawarra, a coast district on the south of Port Jackson, he met with a plant in dark shaded woods, which he introduced 
to Kew in the following year, considering it a Bletia. It soon afterwards flowered in that collection, and was then 
ascertained to differ in no material respect from the plant of the Indian Archipelago, Both have been in flower 
together, and on examination of the two plants, no difference has been discovered, excepting that the Australian 
plant is not so purely white in the flower as the one from India. Mr. D. Moore of the Glasnevin Gardens, who has 
recently received hve plants from his brother, is of opinion that " the spur is shorter, and the flowers more compact than 
those of C. veratrifolia. The leaves are also shorter and the plant is hardier, having stood in a cool greenhouse all the 
season and flowered nicely." We cannot however say that the flowers with which Mr. Moore has favoured us exhibit 
any appreciable structural difference, and we must therefore continue to leave the plant as a mere geographical variety. 
ASTER, 
of 
evergreen 
from 
Gossain Than, Belongs to Appleworts [Pomacem). Introduced from France. (Fig. 203.) 
« . * 
sition. 
It is certain that this curious little evergreen shrub is a mere variety of Cofoneaster miaophylla, next to 
<7. rotundifoliay the most beautiful of the Indian 
Cotoneasters. There appears to be no distinction 
between the two, nor any difference beyond size. 
C tliyvitfolia is not half the size of C. micro- 
phyUa, lies flat on the ground like thyme itself, 
or if upon a stone hardly raises its head above the 
surface ; its leaves are not more than a quarter 
the size, and are much narrower in proportion, 
but they have the same texture, surface, point, 
and hairiness underneftth ; tliey are not so gene- 
rally emarginate, though they ai'c sometimes 
so ; the fruit is much smaller, and so are the 
petals ; it seems to be identical with the Gossain 
Than specimens distributed by Dr. Wallich under 
the number 6G2 of his Herbarium. For rock- 
p , work, or similar places, it is quite a little acqui- 
1^ or the pui-pose of placing it securely on record, we add a short technical phrase which will enable it to be distin- 
guished, whether as a species or mere variety : 
"^1* 
-'' q 
