ARAUCARIA. 23 



No. 2. Araucarta Brasiliensis, Richard, the Brazil Arau- 



caria. 

 Syn. Pinus dioica, Arrahida. 

 ,, Colymbea angustifolia, Bertoloni. 



Leaves, linear, lanceolate, quite straight, and entire, loosely 

 imbricated, and tapering to a very sharp point ; from 1 to 2 

 inches long, and a quarter of an inch broad, scattered all round 

 the leading shoots, and spreading, the older stem ones imbri- 

 cated the reverse way, and remaining on after they become 

 brown, broadest at the base, decurrent, and frequently a 

 little twisted at the base, young ones keeled and glaucous 

 below, light green, and shining above. Branches, numerous, 

 mostly in horizontal whorls, lower ones declining, and partly 

 covered with the adult leaves, upper ones ascending and only 

 divided towards the extremities ; branchlets, slender, leafy, 

 spreading, undivided, and bending gracefully downwards, the 

 lower ones soon turning brown and falling off. Cones, very 

 large, globular, sometimes slightly depressed at the extremities, 

 solitary on the tops of the branches, erect, and without any 

 footstalks, 6 inches long, nearly the same in diameter, and of a 

 yellowish brown colour. Scales, thick, compressed, wedge- 

 shaped, oblong, four-sided, and closely placed together, of a 

 firm corky texture, each terminating in a lanceolate, acute, 

 recurved spine, hollow within at the base on the upper side, 

 and covering a monospermous nut, 2 inches long, covered with a 

 smooth reddish- brown leathery skin. Seeds, very large, oblong, 

 eatable, and without any winged appendage. 



A very handsome pyramidal tree, growing from TO to 100 

 feet high, with a straight stem, covered with tolerable smooth 

 bark, except near the upper part, where the leaves still adhere 

 in a reclining, imbricated position. 



It forms immense forests between the province of Minos 

 Geraes and Soam-Paulo, to the north of Rio de Janeiro ; the 

 nuts, which have very little resin in them, are sold as an article 

 of food in the markets of Rio, and the fragrant resin which 

 exudes from the trunk of the tree is mixed with wax to make 

 candles. 



It is tender, and has the following varieties. 



