THE ARAUCAEIAS.- 195 



trees, with their dark plexus of branches and rigid bristling foliage, 

 extending for a distance of 500 yards in straight unbroken lines. This 

 Avenue was planted in 1843-4 under the direction of the late 

 Mr. James Veitch; it lines a portion of the roadway forming the 

 eastern approach to the mansion. The trees are fifty in number, 

 twenty-five on each side, those on the one side standing precisely 

 opposite those on the other, the interval between every two trees 

 being 63 feet in this direction, and 54 feet in the rows. The height 

 of the trees varies a little, the tallest being (at the present time, 1881) 

 about 37 feet, and the shortest not less than 30 feet. A few have 

 cast off their lowest tier of branches, and there are two or three whose 

 trunks are free of branches to nearly one-third of their height; the uni- 

 formity is thus slightly, but not materially impaired. The circumference 

 of the trunks at 3 feet from the ground, ranges from 5 to 6 J feet ; the 

 length of the lower branches of the most spreading tree is 17 feet. 



The specific name irribricata, "overlapping like the tiles on a roof," 

 refers to the tile-like arrangement of the leaves. 



Araucaria Bidwilli. — A tree of rapid growth and imposing 

 dimensions, often attaining a height of 150 feet, with branches short 

 in proportion to the height of the trunk. The leaves are in two 

 nearly horizontal rows, ovate-lanceolate in form, very sharply pointed, 

 slightly convex above and concave beneath, leathery in texture, and 

 deep glossy green in colour. The cones are sub-globose, the longer 

 diameter being from 10 to 12 inches, and the shorter 9 to 10 inches 

 they grow points downwards. A. Bidwilli is the Bunya-Bunya of 

 eastern Australia, attaining its finest developement in the district 

 between the Brisbane and the Burnett rivers. It is named after 

 Mr. J. T. Bidwill, one of the early botanical explorers of Australia 

 and New Zealand, and for many years a correspondent of the late 

 Mr. James Veitch, Sen., of Exeter. There is a magnificent specimen 

 of A. Bidwilli in the Temperate house at Kew. 



Araucaria brasiliensis.— A tree from 70 to 100 feet high, with 

 the lower part of the trunk generally free of branches, and with a 

 rounded head ; the leaves are oblong lanceolate, much attenuated at 

 the point, loosely imbricated, and deep green. It forms forests of 

 considerable extent on the mountains of southern Brazil, between 

 latitudes 21° and 24° S. 



Araucaria Cookii is one of the most remarkable of the tribe. 

 It attains a height (upwards of 200 feet) greatly disproportionate to 

 the diameter of the trunk, and "when growing alone it sheds its 

 lower branches for four-fifths of its height, and then replaces them 

 by a smaller and more bushy growth, so that the tree at a distance 



