40 ARAUCARIA. 



a kind of pyramidal head, lateral branches long, straight, in 

 opposite pairs, and regularly divided ; branchlets cylindrical, 

 thickly covered all over with leaves, rather slender, undivided, 

 and mostly bent downwards; male and female on separate 

 trees, male catkins ovate-cylindrical, in clusters of from 6 to 7 

 at the ends of the branches ; females solitary and erect. Cones 

 very large, globular, solitary, and erect on the ends of the top 

 branches ; from six to eight inches broad, and from six to seven 

 inches long, of a dark brown colour, with the scales regularly 

 and closely imbricated, but when ripe, quite deciduous, and 

 soon dropping to pieces. Scales, numerous, wedge-shaped, 

 curved near the ends, and deciduous, one inch broad at the 

 widest part, terminating in a long, flat, thin tail, one and a half 

 inch long, and tapering to a fine point. Seeds, very large, from 

 one to one inch and a half long, bluntly four-sided, afterwards 

 gibbose, compressed on the opposite sides, and ending in a long, 

 flat, inflexed, tapering tail, like those of the scales ; of a deep 

 brown colour, one inch and a quarter long, and seven-eighths 

 of an inch at the widest part, and of a leathery texture, each 

 cone producing from 200 to 800 seeds, two to each scale, and 

 ripening towards the end of March. 



A noble tree, growing 150 feet high, and indigenous to 

 Southern Chili, where it is found on the western acclivities of 

 the Andes, often reaching the snow line, but never more than 

 2000 feet below it. It forms vast forests in a part of the Andes 

 inhabited by the Araucanians, a people who are said to pride 

 themselves on their name, its signification being frank or free. 

 It is found also in great abundance on the mountains of 

 Caramavida and Naguelbuta in Chili, and in the neighbourhood 

 of Concepcion. The Corcovado, a mountain that rises opposite 

 Chiloe, is said to be studded from its foot to the snow line with 

 large groups of these beautiful trees. 



The timber is hard, heavy, durable, yellowish-white, fibrous 

 and beautifully veined, capable of receiving a high polish, and 

 easily worked. 



The tree is full of a milky white resin, and the Araucano 



