921 



Fig. 38. Section of half-ripened ovule,, showing the immature embryo, 10 times 



magnified. 

 Fig. 39. Ditto 45 times magnified. 

 Fig. 40. Dissection of a similar example, showing the rounded base of the tube 



(rt) after having been detached from the base of the embryo (b), the 



previous connexion of the two being effected by contact of surfaces of 



two cellules. 



W. Wilson. 



Orford Mount, June 28, 1847. 



Admeasurement of New Zealand and Norfolk Island Pines. 



(Extracted from the ' Proceedings of the Linnean Society '). 



" Read an extract from a letter addressed by Captain Sir E. Home, 

 Bart., R.N., to R. Brown, Esq., V.P.L.S., giving an account of the 

 measurement of some of the largest of the New Zealand and Norfolk 

 Island Pines. With reference to the former Sir E. Home quotes from 

 the Journal of Mr. Saddler, Master R.N., who was sent to New Zea- 

 land in 1833-4 in command of the Buffaloe Store-ship to procure spars 

 for the Navy, The tree which he describes was in a forest near 

 Wangaroa, some miles north of the Bay of Islands. Mr. Saddler 

 says, ' On 16th (May, 1834) I went to examine a Kauri tree {Dam- 

 mara australis, Lamb.) which Mr. Betts, the purveyor, in his search 

 through the forest, had discovered a few days previous ; it is situated 

 about two miles from the river, on the steep bant of a ravine. It 

 appeared perfectly sound and healthy, and measured forty-three feet 

 nine inches in circumference, and sixty feet high without a branch. 

 Its head then spread out into forty-one principal branches, some of 

 which were four feet through. It is more than double the size of 

 any tree I have before seen in this country.' Sir E. Home adds, 

 that the largest tree of this species that he saw was only eighteen 

 feet eight inches in circumference ; but that in Norfolk Island he had 

 measured the largest tree (of Araucaria excelsa, Sol.) known to be 

 upon the island, and had found it to be 187 feet high, the girth at 

 four feet from the ground fifty-four feet, and at twenty feet from the 

 ground fifty-one feet. This tree is hollow for sixteen feet above the 

 ground, but is in good health." 



