CHAP. CXIII. CONl'FERiE. AKAUCA RIA. 



2302 



244-3 



branches, and a trunk upwards of 6 in. in diameter. One at Dropmore, in the 

 open ground, was 1 4- ft. high in ] 837 ; being protected during winter, so as to 

 excUide the frost. One in M. Boursault's garden in Paris, which was kept 

 in a conservatory during winter, and turned out during summer, was, in 1828, 

 12 ft. high; and, of this tree, the vignette 7%. 2302. contains a portrait; it has 

 since been removed to the conservatory at the Jardin des Plantes. 



The timber of the Araucaria imbricata was found by Governor King to be 

 sound only in the lower part of the trunk ; but, in the upper part, too 

 knotty, hard, and brittle to be useful ; for which reason, no dependence 

 could be placed on it for masts and yards. It is, however, he says, very 

 suitable for buildings ; and, when employed m erecting houses, it stands 

 the weather very well. " The turpentine, which exudes freely from the 

 bark, is of a milk-white glutinous substance ; but it is rather remarkable that 

 there 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 also 

 tried 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 fronds 

 may 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 shoot 

 would arise from the collar; but this has scarcely been proved, except in the 

 case of a plant observed by us in 1801, at Mongewell, near Wallingford, in 

 Berkshire. A necessary precaution with this, and with every other species 

 of the more valuable of the ^bietinae, is, during a storm of snow, occasionally 

 to shake from the branches what adheres to them in masses. This should be 

 done 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 their 

 branches broken, in consequence of being heavily loaded with snow near their 

 extremities. 



" It is a highly interesting fact," says Dr Lindley, " that a plant very 

 nearly the same as this araucaria certainly once grew in Great Britain. 

 Remains of it have been found in the lias of Dorsetshire, and have been 

 figured in the Fossil Flora, under the name of Araucaria primaeVa." {Pcnn. 

 Cyc, ii. p. 249.) 



J 4. A. CuNNiNGHA%// Ait. Cunningham's Araucaria, or the Moreton 



Bay Pine. 



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



Synonyme. AltfngM Cunninghami? G. Don in Loud. Hort. Brit., p. 408. 



Engravings. Lamb. Pin., 3. t. 96.; our fig. 2304. to our usual scale ; and fig. 2303. of the natural size. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. 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. 



