68 Illustrations of Conifers. 



ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA (Pavori). CHILE PINE. 



Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 297 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I. p. 44 (1906). 



AN evergreen tree attaining 100 feet in height with a cylindrical trunk 

 9 to 15 feet in girth. Bark rough, separating into irregulary shaped 

 scales. 



Leaves spirally crowded on the branches, sessile, coriaceous, rigid, 

 ovate, lanceolate, sharply pointed, slightly concave on the upper 

 surface, glabrous, bright shining green, with stomata on both surfaces, 

 persistent for 10 to 15 years. 



Flowers usually dioecious. Male catkins cylindrical, solitary or 

 clustered, terminal, sessile, erect, 3 to 5 inches long, yellow, composed 

 of densely packed anther scales with recurved tips. Cones globular, 

 brown in colour, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, falling to pieces when 

 mature, ripening in two years. Seed one on each scale adnate to it, 

 and falling with it, 1 to 1 inches long, wingless, with a thick brown 

 coat. 



Native forests of this remarkable conifer occur in southern Chile 

 where it attains its greatest development in a region known as the 

 Sierra de Pemehue, a range of mountains lying on the west side of 

 the upper course of the great Bfobio river. It was discovered about 

 1780 by Don Francisco Dendariarena. 



The Chile Pine is one of the best known and most generally 

 distributed conifers in cultivation and there are many fine specimens 

 in the British Isles. 



The seeds are largely eaten by Araucanos and other tribes of 

 Indians, and a gum which exudes from the bark is used in Chile as 

 a salve for wounds. The timber has no commercial value and is only 

 used locally. 



The tallest Araucaria at Bayfordbury was planted in 1841 and 

 now measures 30 feet in height. 



