ARAUCARIA COOKII. 303 



Araucaria Cookii. 



A lofty tree of singular habit and aspect, attaining a height of 

 150 200 feet, and which after shedding its primary branches for 

 five-sixths or more of its height, replaces them by a smaller and 

 more bushy growth, so that the tree has the appearance of a tall 

 column crowned with a mass of branchlets and foliage of the first 

 growth. On young trees cultivated in Great Britain the primary 

 branches are spreading, and are produced in whorls of five seven ; 

 the branchlets close-set, distichous and decurved at the distal end. 

 Leaves spirally crowded, awl-shaped, laterally compressed, broad and 

 slightly decurrent at the base, and terminating in a short point or mucro, 

 bright green. Staminate flowers sub-cylindric, 1*5 inch long ; stamens 

 spirally crowded, with a cordate-ovate connective bearing "ten twelve 

 anther cells. Cones shortly stalked, ovoid-globose, the longer diameter 

 4 5 inches, the shorter 3 5 inches ; scales closely imbricated, ovate- 

 cuneate, terminating in a long subulate mucro. 



Araucaria Cookii, R. Brown ex Don in Trans. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 164 (1839). 

 Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 373. Gard. Chron. III. ser. 3 (1888), p. 774, with figs. 

 A. colunmaris, Hooker, W. Bot. Mag. t. 4635 (1852). 



New Caledonia, Aneitum and one or two small islets in the New 

 Hebrides group, but quite Tare. Discovered in 1774 by Captain Cook, 

 whose companions thought at first that they beheld in the distance a 

 tall column of basalt or some other volcanic product standing aloft in 

 solitary grandeur.* Several varieties of. Araucaria Cookii are 

 distinguished by name by Australian horticulturists. 



Araucaria Cunningham! 



A tall pyramidal tree, but usually with a flattened head in old age, 

 in some localities attaining a height of 150 200 feet, but in others 

 remaining much smaller. Branches in whorls of four seven, spreading 

 horizontally or more or less depressed ; ramification distichous with many 

 adventitious weaker shoots on the upper side of the branches of young- 

 trees growing under glass in Great Britain. Leaves in crowded spires, 

 acicular, laterally compressed with the dorsal midrib decurrent, 

 0'25 0'5 inch long ; those on the fertile branches shorter, triquetral 

 and with a broad adnate base. Staminate flowers cylindric, 2 3 inches 

 long ; stamens densely crowded, with an ovate-rhomboid connective 

 bearing eight ten anther cells. Cones ovoid-globose, about 3 inches long 

 and 2 inches broad, the scales with their marginal wings broadly cuneate 

 and terminating in a lanceolate recurved mucro. 



Araucaria Cimningliami, Lambert, Genus Pinus, II. t. 96 (1824). London, Arb. 

 et Frut. Brit. IV. 2443, with figs. Bentham, Fl. Austral. VI. 243. C. Moore, 

 Fl. N. S. Wales, 376 (Moreton Bay Pine). 



The most widely distributed of all the Australian Araucarias. From 

 the north-east coast district of New South Wales it spreads northwards 



* An amusing account of the discovery of this curious Araucaria is given by Captain Cook 

 in the narrative of his second voyage to the south Pacific Ocean, much of which is reproduced 

 by Sir. William Hooker in the Botanical Magazine, loc. cit. 



