CHRISTMAS TREES 329 



group is to be seen in gardens in the South of Europe 

 (for instance at Baveno on the Lago Maggiore), where 

 it is introduced from Mexico. This is the Pinus 

 Montezumae, which has extraordinarily long tufts of 

 needles of a blue-green colour, each needle from 7 to 

 10 inches long, arranged as radiating or fan-like growths 

 of great beauty and striking appearance. The Bohtan 

 pine of the Himalayas (Pinus excelsa — ^not to be con- 

 fused with Picea excelsa, the spruce) is also a five-leaved 

 species. Several specimens of it are flourishing in Kew 

 Gardens. 



A few lines must be given to the Araucarianae, 

 Taxodinae, and Cupressinae. The Araucarianae include, 

 besides the Chilian monkey puzzle, an Australian species, 

 and the New Zealand Dammar pine Agathis, which 

 produces the amber-like Kauri gum. The leaves of the 

 monkey puzzle are like the scales of a spruce cone in 

 shape, and the ordinary branches are like elongated 

 green spruce-cones, whilst the seed-cones have needle-like 

 scales. The next family, the Taxodinae, are in many 

 respects intermediate in character, between the Abietinse 

 (true pines, cedars, and firs) and the Cupressinae (cypresses 

 and junipers). They have very small, lance-shaped 

 leaves, closely packed, so as to overlap one another — 

 as in the celebrated Wellingtonia or American Big-tree — 

 and small cones, with hard, knob-like scales, resembling 

 those of the most woody- coned Pinus, but few in number. 

 The American Big-tree (native on the western slopes 

 of the Californian Sierra Nevada) is named " Sequoia 

 gigantea" by the botanists. It was introduced into 

 England about sixty years ago. The Red-wood, of the 

 Pacific coast of the United States, is another species of 

 Sequoia (S. sempervirens), and it appears that a specimen 

 of it has been measured as reaching 340 feet in height; 



