1064 ARBORETUM ET FRU'TICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
both sides ; leathery, with a car- 
tilagimous margin, and remaining 
attached to the tree for several 
years. The male and female cat- 
kins are on separate trees; the 
males are 6 or 7 in a 
cluster, pedunculate, 
terminal, yellow, and 
= oval, with numerous } 
CIM scales ;  imbricated, | ‘A 
long, and recurved at 
the points: the female \ 
catkins are oval, with S 
numerous imbricated 
wedge-shaped _ scales, 
with narrowed oblong 
brittle points ; and 
they are produced at 
the ends of the 
branches, where they 
look at first sight like 
an unnatural thicken- 
ain31. ing of the leaves. The 
male. cones, when fully ripe, 
are globular, from 3in. to 4 in. in 
diameter, and of a dark brown 
colour. The scales are deciduous, 
and easily detached. The seeds 
‘are 2 to each scale, wedge-shaped, 
and very large, being more than 
lin. long, with a thick hard 
shell surrounding an eatable kernel: wings short and obsolete. The male 
tree has its leaves somewhat differently shaped from those of the female tree, 
and very much resembling those 
of A. brasiliana in shape, though 
of a different texture and co- 
lour. The wood is red where 
it has been affected by the 
forest fires; but otherwise it is 
white, and towards the centre 
of the stem bright yellow. It 
yields to none in hardness and 
solidity, and might prove valu- 
able for many uses, if the places 
of growth of the tree were less 
inaccessible. Of the rate of 
growth of this tree in its native 
country very little is stated by 
travellers. It is probably slow, 
as appears to be the case with 
plants in the climate of Lon- 
don; though scarcely any of 
these have yet had full justice 
done to them. Young plants 
established in the open ground 
at Dropmore and Bayfordbury 
make shoots, occasionally, of 
above a foot in length. It may ae = 
be remarked of the araucaria 1985. A. imbricdtas at Kew in 1837. 
1984. A. imbricata: female. 
