24-36 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 111. 



be the case with plants in the climate of London ; though scarcely any of 

 these have yet had full justice done to them. The largest specimen in Europe, 

 which is that at Kew, and of which fig. 2293. is a portrait taken in 1836, was 

 then 12 ft. high, after having been above 40 years planted; but young plants, 

 established in the open ground at Dropmore, make shoots, occasionally, of 

 above a foot in length. It may be remarked of the araucaria in Britain, that 

 young plants sometimes remain a whole year without making any shoot 

 whatever ; and that, at other times, the same plants require two years to 

 produce one shoot ; that is, the shoot continues slowly increasing in length, 

 from the midsummer of one year to that of the year following. 



Geography. The araucaria is a native of South America, in a part of 

 the Andes inhabited by the Araucanians, a people who are said by Molina 

 to pride themselves on their name, its signification being frank, or free. ( See 

 Molina's History of Chili, &c.) The tree is found in large forests on the 

 mountains Caramavida and Naguelbuta,in Chili, belonging to the Llanista, Peg- 

 huen, and Araucano Indians. This chain, or Cordillera, of the Andes, says 

 Pavon, as quoted by Mr. Lambert, " offers to the view, in general, a rocky soil, 

 though in parts wet and boggy, on account of the abundance of rain and snow 

 which falls in these regions, similar to many provinces in Spain." It is also 

 found in the neighbourhood of Concepcion, in Chili. Preppig says : " The 

 araucaria forest of Antuco is the most northerly that is known in Chili; so 

 that the northern boundary of this king of all the extra-tropical American trees 

 may be estimated at 36 south latitude. The extreme southern limit is not 

 so clearly ascertained ; which is not surprising, when we consider how little, 

 comparatively, is known of Western Patagonia : it seems probable, however, 

 that it does not stretch far beyond lat. 46. Between Antuco and Valdivia, 

 this tree only grows among the Andes, and, as the Indians assert, solely on 

 their western declivities, and nowhere lower than from 1500 ft. to 2000 ft. 

 below the snow line, up to which they frequently reach. Further to the 

 south, the araucaria appears at a lower elevation ; and, in the country of the 

 Cuncos, and about Osorno, is said to occur on mountains of a very moderate 

 altitude, near the sea. The Corcovado, a mountain that rises opposite Childe, 

 is said to be studded, from its foot to the snow line, with large groups of 

 these beautiful trees. Of all other vegetation, the araucarian forests are as 

 bare as the pine woods, offering but few plants which can interest the botanist. 

 Steep rocky ridges, where there is no water, are its favourite habitat." (Pcepp. 

 in Comp. Bot. Mag.) 



History. The Spaniards, having settlements in the immediate vicinity of 

 the country of the Araucanians, employed Don Francisco Dendariarena, in 

 1 780, to examine the trees, with a view of discovering if any of them were 

 suitable for ship-building. The result of his experiments was to select this 

 species (the Peghuen of the natives), which was accordingly made use of to 

 repair the Spanish squadron, then lying at anchor in the port of Talcaguano. 

 The Abbate Molina, who was then writing his Civil and Natural History of 

 Chili (published at Bologna in 1782) supposed the tree to be a Pinus; and 

 he described it in his work under the name of Pmus Araucana. In 1782, 

 the Spanish government commissioned Don Joseph Pavon to search for this 

 tree ; and he, finding both its flowers and fruit, ascertained that it was a distinct 

 genus, and called it Araucaria imbricata. Don Joseph Pavon (who had pre- 

 viously visited Chili, in company with Don Hippolito Ruiz and the French 

 botanist Dombey, in 1777,) sent specimens of Araucaria imbricata to France, to 

 the care of Dombey, who showed them to MM. Lamarck and De Jussieu, in 

 Paris ; the former of whom called it Dombeya chilensis, while Jussieu re- 

 tained the name of Araucaria. Don Joseph Pavon, however, complains, in 

 his account of this tree, published in the first volume of the Memoirs of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at Madrid, that both Jussieu and Lamarck made 

 several mistakes in their description of the botanical characteristics of the 

 species, which had been avoided by both Molina and himself. In 1795, 

 Captain Vancouver touched at the coast of Chili ; and Mr. Menzies, who 



