CH. VII] THE ARAUCARIA FAMILY 107 



the vegetation of the Mesozoic and Tertiary epochs. 

 In 1741 a plant from Amboyna, one of the Moluccas, was 

 described under the name Dammara alba. For this 

 tree, known as the Amboyna Fine, the English botanist 

 Salisbury instituted the generic name Agathis, from a 

 Greek word (dyadic) meaning a ball of string and pro- 

 bably suggested by the form of the cones, which is the 

 designation usually adopted in botanical literature 

 instead of the pre-Linnean term Dammara. The best 

 known species of the genus is the Kauri Pine, probably 

 the finest forest tree in New Zealand where it still 

 flourishes from the North Cape to latitude 38° S., 

 though the occurrence of sub-fossil trunks and pieces 

 of buried resin shows that the Kauri forests are gradu- 

 ally dwindling. The stems of this species, Agathis 

 australis, rise like massive grey columns to a height 

 of 160 ft., terminating in a succession of spreading 

 branches given off* in tiers from the main trunk. The 

 thick narrow lanceolate leaves, with several parallel 

 veins, reach a length of 2 to 3 inches. The female 

 shoots have the form of small and almost spherical 

 cones consisting of a central axis bearing overlapping 

 spiral series of broadly triangular scales (Fig. 16). 

 Each scale carries a single seed with a large wing 

 attached to one side which facilitates disposal by 

 wind. Other species of Agathis occur in the Malay 

 Archipelago, the Philippines, in Queensland, in the 

 New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Fiji Islands, and 



