AEAUCABIA. 35 



half an inch wide, and of a chestnut brown colour. The 

 scales are in sixes, nearly equal in size, and connected at the 

 base on a very short axis, the lower ones are oblong-acute and 

 erect, and the upper ones narrow, spreading, and with acute 

 spiny points ; the seeds are in twos under each of the upper 

 scales, and either two or three winged. 



A low, erect, branching shrub, found at the Swan River 

 Colony, in Western Australia, and not hardy in England. 



Gen. AEAUCAEIA. Jussieu. 



Flowers, dioecious, or male and female flowers on different 

 plants. 



Cones, globular, and terminal. 



Scales, deciduous, or partially so. 



Seeds, more or less attached to the scales. 



Leaves, scale-like, persistent, and widest at the base. 



Name, derived from Araucanos, a people of Chili, in which 

 country Araucaria imbricata abounds, and where its seeds fur- 

 nish a great portion of the food of the Indians. 



The Araucarias differ from the true Pines and Firs in having 

 the sexes on separate trees ; in the scales on the cones being 

 one-seeded, and in the seeds being more or less attached to the 

 scales. They, however, approach nearest to the Genus Dam- 

 mara, in being dioecious ; but differ from them in the form of 

 the leaves and scales on the cones ; also in having bracteas to 

 each female flower, and in the seeds being more or less attached 

 to the scales, and not free, as in the Genus Dammara. 



Section I. COLUMBEA, Salisbury, or the Teue Aeaucarus. 



Cones very large; scales slightly winged and deciduous; 

 seeds indistinctly attached at the base. Seed-leaves from two 

 D 2 



