236 ARAUCARINE^ 



We venture to think that it exceeds the price paid 

 by any multi-millionaire of modern days for a similar 

 article in Western lands. Here in Great Britain, 

 some two pounds* (or less) worth of best British-grown, 

 silver-grained, seasoned oak, or half that price paid 

 for an equivalent in brown boards of impervious 

 elm, amply, and often more than amply, satisfies the 

 most fastidious tastes of the highest born in the 

 land, or the ultra-extravagant desires of the super- 

 wealthy. 



What sums were paid, at a long day ago, for the 

 richly chased and stoned sarcophagus, or how they 

 compared with the price of an artistically lacquered 

 coffin made from a C. Lanceolata, or Sha Shu as the 

 Chinese call it, which had perhaps lain for centuries 

 buried below the earth, we do not know. 



The custom clearly demonstrates that there are 

 still extant nations of men and women who, like the 

 Egyptians of old and other ancient races, are wishful 

 to sacrifice more wealth upon their sepulchres than 

 their living abodes ; who are perfectly resigned, in 

 their life upon earth, to put up with a hovel, if they 

 feel assured that a palace of art will adorn their 

 long, last resting-place. 



There does not seem to be any recognized difference 

 as between what has been called the C. Sinensis and 

 the C. Sinensis var. Lanceolata. 



