1064 



ARBORETUM ET FUUTICETUM liKITANNICUM, 



both sides ; leathery, with a car- 

 tilaginous margin, and remaining 

 attached to the tree for several 

 years. The male and female cat- 

 kins are on separate trees ; the 



males are 6 or 7 in a 



cluster, pedunculate, 



terminal, yellow, and 



oval, with numerous 



scales ; imbricated, 



long, and recurved at 



the points : the female 



catkins are oval, with 



numerous imbricated 



wedge-shaped scales, 



with nan-owed oblong 



brittle points ; and 



they are produced at 



the ends of the 



branches, where they 



look at first sight like 



an unnatural thicken- 

 A . 19S ?\ ing of the leaves. The 



A. imbricata: O . ,. 



a| e. cones, when fully ripe, 

 are globular, from 3 in. to 4 in. in 

 diameter, and of a dark brown 

 colour. The scales are deciduous, 

 and easily detached. The seeds 

 are 2 to each scale, wedge-shaped, 

 and very large, being more than 

 1 in. long, with a thick hard 

 shell surrounding an eatable kernel : wings short and obsolete. The male 

 tree has its leaves somewhat differently shaped from those of the female tree, 

 and very much resembling those 

 of A. brasiliana in shape, though 

 of a different texture and co- 

 lour. The wood is red where 

 it has been affected by the 

 forest fires ; but otherwise it is 

 Ahite, and towards the centre 

 of the stem bright yellow. It 

 yields to none in hardness and 

 solidity, and might prove valu- 

 able for many uses, if the places 

 of growth of the tree were less 

 inaccessible. Of the rate of 

 growth of this tree in its native 

 country very little is stated by 

 travellers. It is probably slow, 

 as appears to be the case with 

 plants in the climate of Lon- 

 don ; though scarcely any of 

 these have yet had full justice 

 done to them. Young plants 

 established in the open ground 

 at Dropmore and Bayfordbury 

 make shoots, occasionally, of 

 above a foot in length. It may 

 be remarked of the araucaria 1995. A. imbricata . at Kewm IBS? 



1J>84. A. imbric&ta: female. 



