236 : ARAUCARINE 
We venture to think that it exceeds the price paid 
by any multi-millionaire of modern days for a similar 
article in Western lands. Here in Great Britain, 
some two pounds’ (or less) worth of best British-grown, 
silver-grained, seasoned oak, or half that price paid 
for an equivalent in brown boards of impervious 
elm, amply, and often more than amply, satisfies the 
most fastidious tastes of the highest born in the 
land, or the ultra-extravagant desires of the super- 
wealthy. 
What sums were paid, at a long day ago, for the 
richly chased and stoned sarcophagus, or how they 
-compared with the price of an artistically lacquered 
coffin made from a C. Lanceolata, or Sha Shu as the 
. Chinese call it, which had perhaps lain for centuries 
buried below the earth, we do not know. 
The custom clearly demonstrates that there are 
still extant nations of men and women who, like the 
Egyptians of old and other ancient races, are wishful 
to sacrifice more wealth upon their sepulchres than 
their living abodes; who are perfectly resigned, in 
their life upon earth, to put up with a hovel, if they 
feel assured that a palace of art will adorn their 
long, last resting-place. 
There does not seem to be any recognized difference 
as between what has been called the C. Sinensis and 
the C. Sinensis var. Lanceolata. 
