CHAP CXfll. 



CONl'FEKiE. ARAUCA RIA. 



2433 





cleft in different directions, and equally resinous with the inner bark. In 

 young trees, the bark of the trunk is studded with leaves from the base of the 

 tree upwards, which remain attached for 12 or 15 years. The branches are 

 produced in whorls of 6, 7, and sometimes 8, in a whorl, the greater number 

 being nearest the ground ; and the branches diminish in length as they ascend 

 higher up the tree, till at the top they terminate in a kind of pyramidal head. 

 They are horizontal, inflexed, and ascending at the extremities. These large 

 horizontal arms, clothed with closely imbricated leaves, resemble, in young 

 trees, snakes partly coiled round the trunk, and stretching forth their long 

 slender bodies in quest of prey. The leaves are sessile, somewhat thickened 

 at the base, ovate-lanceolate, stiff, straight, somewhat keel-shaped below, and 

 strongly mucronate at the apex ; verticillate, with 7 or 8 in a whorl ; imbricate, 

 and closely encircling the branches; concave, rigid, glabrous, shining, marked 

 with longitudinal lines, dotted on both sides ; leathery, with a cartilaginous 



7s 2 / 



