262 THE BOOK OF EVERGREENS. 



The Chili Pine forms a tall, straight tree, with a maximum 

 height of 150 feet. The shape is perfectly conical, with 

 horizontal branches placed in regular whorls. The branch- 

 lets are so densely crowded with the closely imbricated 

 leaves as to entirely conceal the bark, and the foliage per- 

 sists for several years. Its growth is remarkably rapid in 

 suitable localities, and it quickly arrives at maturity. 

 Pavon, in speaking of this tree, remarks that the male 

 plant rarely ever exceeds 40 or 50 feet in height, but the 

 female usually grows to the height of 150 feet. 



We have endeavored to succeed with it, but it failed 

 with us, as it has generally throughout the Middle 

 States ; but a few degrees further south it is quite satis- 

 factory. Sargent says in Downing's Landscape Garden- 

 ing : " Both sun and wet are fatal to it, and in situations 

 where there are no hill-sides sloping to the north, it should 

 be planted on the north of buildings on little mounds, with 

 at least the lower foot in the holes filled with stones for 

 drainage." 



Downing's description of the Dropmore specimens in 

 England is one of the best that we have seen of this tree. 

 He says: "But the gem of the collection is the superb 

 Chili Pine, or Araucaria, the oldest, I think, in England, or, 

 at all events, the finest. The seed was presented to the 

 late Lord Grenville by William IV, who had some of the 

 first gigantic cones of this tree that were imported. This 

 specimen is now 30 feet high, perfectly symmetrical, the 

 stem as straight as a column, the branches dispersed with 

 the utmost regularity, and the lower ones drooping and 

 touching the ground like those of a Larch. If you will 

 not smile, I will tell you that it struck me that the expres- 

 sion of this tree is heroic, that is, it looks the very Mars 

 of evergreens. 



" There are no slender twigs, no small branches, but a 

 great stem with branches like a colossal bronze candela- 

 brum, or perhaps the whole reminds one more of some 



