VII] THE ARAUCARIA FAMILY 109 



elsewhere. With the exception of the Australian 

 Kauri (Agathis rohusta), with leaves larger and 

 broader than those of the New Zealand Kauri, the 

 genus is essentially an island type. With the ex- 

 ception of some species of the southern hemisphere 

 genus Podocarpus, there are no Conifers with foliage 

 like that of Agathis. It is, however, the broad and thin 

 single-seeded scales and the spherical cones, in some 

 species six inches in length, which furnish the most 

 trustworthy means of identifying the genus. 



The allied genus Araucaria, with the exception 

 of two South American species, the familiar Monkey 

 Puzzle, Araucaria imbricata, and a Brazilian tree, 

 Araucaria hrasiliana, is confined within the geo- 

 graphical area occupied by Agathis. The name Arau- 

 caria was first used by de Jussieu in 1789 for a plant 

 previously referred to the genus Pinus and described 

 as one of the most beautiful trees of Chili. This 

 species, A. imbricata, introduced into England in 

 1796, grows on the southern slopes of the Andes and, 

 as in the case of the Kauri forests of New Zealand, 

 buried stems point to a wider extension of the forests 

 in earlier days. The sharp and thick leaves of the 

 Monkey Puzzle distinguish it from all other Conifers ; 

 its large almost spherical seed-bearing cones, more 

 than half a foot in length, which may occasionally be 

 seen on well-grown British trees, are unlike those of 

 other genera. Each of the deep and narrow scales 



