28 Post-mortem on Araucaria Imhricata. 



of the Natural History Museum in Cromwell- 

 road. It was growing upon such a soil as I 

 have named within the London series, and 

 grew well up to a year or two before it was 

 cut down. The lower branches died, whorl 

 after whorl died off, the top of the tree 

 retaining its vitality to the end. The surface 

 soil was perfectly dry, too dry; the subsoil 

 two and a half feet below was a wet, cold, 

 yellow clay. The tap-root was three feet 

 long, and intact, but dead ; the roots and 

 root-fibre were close on the surface and were 

 dried up. Here are two causes which admit 

 of no contradiction, viz. : a cold wet bottom 

 and dry surface, attended by an insufficiency 

 of plant food ; the leaves having been care- 

 fully swept away and the grass-cutting 

 machine used for many years. How often we 

 find a failure of tree life on lawns and pleasure 

 grounds not noticeable upon grass and park 

 lands, owing entirely to this fact, that the 

 trees for the sake of tidiness have been 

 deprived of their natural food and surface 

 moisture. In this case, too, the tree was 

 planted in a soil which did not correspond 



