xviii CONIFEROUS TREES 



only be readily extracted by means of fire, and 

 an interesting sight it is to see the squaws seated 

 by the bright camp fire roasting the cones until 

 the hard scales fly open with a crackling noise 

 and liberate the seeds. The cones are truly noble 

 objects, one now before me produced in southern 

 England being fully 6 inches long by nearly the 

 same in greatest width, of a pleasing rich chocolate 

 colour, and composed of sharply hooked and 

 downward - bent scales. The seeds are large, 

 only thirty being included in one ounce weight. 



Amongst the Afghan villagers of the Himalayas, 

 the seeds of P. Geravdiana are highly prized, 

 while they are regarded as a rare delicacy by the 

 poorer residents in northern India ; and in 

 Nepaul and Bhotan those of the beautiful P. 

 longifolia are much in request. The peculiarly 

 interesting P. monophylla produces small cones, 

 hardly more than 3 inches long, but the seeds, 

 which are wingless and produced two beneath 

 each scale, are a rare delicacy amongst the hill 

 tribes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and also 

 form an important article of commerce amongst 

 several of these Indian communities. P. edulis 

 also produces large and very palatable seeds, 

 though the cones are but small, and in New Mexico 

 and Colorado they are extensively used as food 

 by the native Indians of these parts. The well- 

 known Araucaria imhricata produces, even in 

 this country, immense globular cones about 9 

 inches in diameter, each containing upwards of 

 two hundred seeds. These are large and edible, 

 and used as food — raw, roasted, and boiled — 

 by the natives of Chile, particularly the Arau- 



