ARAUCARIA 199 



ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA, Pavon. CHILE PINE, MONKEY 

 PUZZLE. CONIFERS. 



An evergreen tree, 50 to 80 ft. high, of pyramidal or rounded form, 

 with an erect, cylindrical bole, ij to 2\ ft. thick, all but the oldest parts 

 prickly with living leaves or the remains of dead ones. Branches pro- 

 duced in regular tiers of five to seven. Leaves very uniform, ovate, with 

 a slender spine-tipped point, from i to 2 ins. long, J to i in. wide ; hard, 

 rigid, and leathery ; dark glossy green except at the paler-growing tips of 

 the branches, and with numerous stomatic lines on both surfaces. The 

 leaves are arranged spirally on the branch, overlapping at the broad, 

 stalk less base, and are very densely packed (about twenty-four to i in. 

 of stem) ; they remain alive for ten to fifteen years, and then persist for 

 an indefinite time dead. Male and female flowers are usually borne on 

 separate trees, but not invariably ; the former are produced on egg-shaped 

 or cylindrical catkins 3 to 5 ins. long, the scales lanceolate, densely 

 packed, with the slender points reflexed, the pollen being shed in early 

 July. The female cones take two seasons to develop ; appearing in the 

 spring of one year, and shedding their seeds in August or September of 

 the next ; they are globose, and usually 5 to 7 ins. thick. Seeds conical, 

 i J ins. long, f in. wide. 



Native of Chile; originally discovered about 1780, and introduced to 

 England by Archibald Menzies in 1795. Menzies had, two or three 

 years previously, when attached to Vancouver's voyage of survey, 

 pocketed some nuts put on for dessert whilst he and the ship's officers 

 were dining with the Viceroy of Chile. He sowed these nuts on board 

 ship, and ultimately landed five plants, which proved to be the Araucaria, 

 alive in England. One of the five existed at Kew until 1892. The Chile 

 pine, whilst hardy in most parts of the British Isles, attains its finest 

 development in the softer, moister counties, and in good free soil. It 

 should always be raised from seeds, fertile ones of which are now 

 regularly produced in several gardens. At Castle Kennedy I have seen 

 seedling plants springing up naturally near the trees from which seeds 

 had fallen. Araucaria imbricata is of peculiar interest as the only tree 

 from south of the equator that attains to timber-producing size in the 

 average climate of the British Isles. It becomes over 100 ft. high and 

 7 ft. in diameter of trunk in Chile, deriving its name from the Arauco 

 province (inhabited by the Araucanos Indians), where it was first found. 

 A species is found in Brazil, and several others in Australia and New 

 Caledonia all tender. In its general aspect, and especially as compared 

 with ordinary types of northern vegetation, the Chile pine is the most 

 remarkable hardy tree ever introduced to Britain. It should always be 

 grown as an isolated tree, or in an isolated group, as it associates very 

 badly with ordinary garden vegetation. It was first introduced in quantity 

 to this country in 1844, by Wm. Lobb. 



