360 

 2. Araucaria Bidwilli, 



Hook., Lond. Jour. Bot. II. 49S, t. IS. 

 "BUNVA BUNYA" or "BOX-YI." 



Habitat. 

 Coast district of Queensland. 



I. HISTORICAL. 



" Bon-yi," the native name for the pine Araucaria Bidwilli, has been 

 wrongly accepted and pronounced " bunya." To the blacks it was " bon-jd," 

 the " i " being sounded as an " e " in English — " bon-ye." The bon-\i tree 

 bears huge cones, full of nuts, which the natives are \-ery fond of. Each year 

 the trees will bear a few cones, but it was only in every third year that the great 

 gatherings of the natives took place, for then it was that the trees bore a heavy 

 crop, and the blacks never failed to know the season. (From " Tom Petrie's 

 Reminiscences of Early Queensland " by his daughter. Brisbane, 1904, p. 11.) 



This valuable forest tree appears to have been first made known to white 

 men by Mr. Andrew Petrie, Superintendent of the Government Works at Moreton 

 Bay in 1838, who gave specimens to Mr. J. S. Bidwill. The latter gentleman took 

 material with him to England, and the tree was described by Sir ^^'illiam Hooker, 

 I.e. supra. 



This species is interesting as it is closely allied to its congener A. imbricata, 

 Pav., of South America, and to which species it is certainly very much more closely 

 connected than to A. Ciinninghamii. In fact, we are strongly inclined to suggest 

 that the genus be subdivided, taking the two Australian species as types of the 

 two groups, between which there are marked differences. 



II. SYSTE.MATIC. 



This is a beautiful forest tree attaining over 150 feet in height, and now 

 much cultivated for its symmetrical shape and the remarkable appearance of its 

 whorled branches, with their spirally arranged leaves, wliich give it a facies more 

 nearly approaching the South American A . imbricata tlian its Queensland con- 

 gener, .4 . Ciinninghamii. It is, however, a very much quicker grower than the 

 South American pine. 



The leaves arc numerous, homomorphir, imbricate, spirally arranged, 

 lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, sessile, under 2 inches long, shining, and broad at 



