1912-13.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 151 



Note ox Araucaria Bidwillii. Hook. 

 By Professor GIOVANNI ABCANGELL 



I believe it will be of interest to call attention again to 

 a specimen of this species growing in the Botanic Garden 

 of Pisa. 1 This specimen ; obtained from the nursery of 

 M. Scarlatti at Florence, was planted in the place named 

 Orto Xuovo by the late Professor T. Camel in 1872. 

 This plant, when transferred to our Botanic Garden, 

 probably was not more than twelve years old. and will 

 now be fifty-three years old. Though the stem of this 

 plant was three times cut off near the top by wind, it has 

 always restored its summit quite well, and now its habit 

 is very imposing, and resembles that of an Abies, the 

 stem being clothed by branches disposed in numerous 

 whorls from the base to the top. At the time of my 

 former publication, the stem of this plant was 12 m. high 

 and 035 m. in diameter ; at present it attains a height of 

 16 in., and a diameter at the base of 0*54 m., growing in 

 thirteen years about 4 m. in length and 019 m. in thickness. 

 It thus becomes clear that the ground of our garden is very 

 suitable for the cultivation of this plant, which not only 

 grew vigorously, but supported the heat and dryness of the 

 summer, as well as the cold of the winter, down to — 8 : C. 



In the year 1911, we began to observe on our plant, in 

 the spring, some flowers, probably born in the preceding 

 year. The flowers appeared on the branches near the top 

 of the tree, and were amentiform, in small quantity, and 

 female, bearing ovules but without stamens. Therefore 

 we infer that this plant has attained its puberty about its 

 fifty-second year. At the end of September the flowers 

 were changed into bulky cones nearly 25 cm. long and 15 cm. 

 broad. Each cone was composed of the superior part of a 

 branch, swollen and oblong, bearing numerous appendages, 

 which on maturity fell down with the seeds included within. 

 These appendages have a complex nature, which is not easy 

 to explain. Each appendage is formed by a cone-scale, 

 placed in the axil of a bract, but almost completely adnate 



1 "Bullettino della Societa botanica italiana," Xov.-Dic. 1899. Xi. 

 9-10, p. 262. 



