260 THE ARAUCARIA. 
stem ; and as even a hearty eater among the Indians, except he 
should be wholly deprived of every other kind of sustenance, 
cannot consume more than 200 nuts in a day, it is obvious 
that eighteen araucarias will maintain a single person for a 
whole year.” 
Respecting the timber, he says——“The wood of the araucaria 
is red where it has been affected by the forest fires ; but other- 
wise it is white, and towards the centre of the stem bright 
yellow. It yields to none in hardness and solidity, and might 
prove valuable for many uses, if the places of growth of the 
tree were less inaccessible. For shipbuilding it would be 
useful ; but it is much too heavy for masts. If a branch be 
scratched, or the scales of an unripe fruit be broken, a thick 
milky juice immediately exudes, that soon changes to a 
yellowish resin, of which the smell is agreeable, and which is 
considered by the Chilians as possessing such medicinal virtues 
that it cures the most violent rheumatic headaches, when 
applied to the spot where the pain is felt.” The scales of the 
cones are deciduous, and are shed with the seed about the 
end of March. 
In this country the plant is more susceptible of frost in 
low, damp, and confined situations than it is in more upland 
exposures. In such in the north of Scotland, it generally 
stands scathless during the severest winters; but the plants 
raised in this country vary in the degree of frost they can 
endure; no doubt according to the elevation at which the 
seeds have been produced in their native country. It is not 
particular as to the quality of soil, provided it is well drained. 
In Britain its rate of growth is too slow for that of a timber tree, 
seldom exceeding fourteen or fifteen feet in twenty years. 
One of the first introduced trees, that at Kew, is the largest I 
have seen, but it is small for its years. At the time I saw it, 
it bore a large cone of a globular figure, and apparently seven 
or eight inches in diameter. 
The growth of the tree is uniform, stiff, and formal, and as 
yet it is cultivated purely for ornament. It forms a conspicuous 
object in the pleasure-ground, from the peculiarity of its con- 
