2442 



AKHORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART Hi 



2298 



2299 



easilj be mistaken for distinct species. The bark abounds 

 in turpentine; but there is none in the wood, which is white, 

 tough, and close-grained. Captain Cook, de- 

 scribing the tree when he discovered it, says : — 

 " The wood is white, close-grained, tough, and 

 light. Turpentine had exuded out of most of 

 the trees, and the sun had inspissated it into a 

 resin, which was found sticking to the trunks, 

 and lying about the roots. These trees shcot 

 out their branches like all other pines; with 

 this difference, that the branches of these are 

 much smaller and shorter, so that the knots 

 become nothing when the tree is wrought for use. I took 

 notice that the largest of them had the smallest and 

 shortest branches, and were crowned, as it were, at the top by a spreading 

 head, like a bush. This was what led some on board into the extravagant 

 notion that they were basaltes." (Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii. p. 149., as 

 quoted by Lambert.) In Captain Hunter's Journal of the Transactions at Port 

 Jackson and Norfolk Island, also quoted by Mr. Lambert, it is mentioned that 

 these trees grow there to a prodigious height, and are proportionably thick, 

 being from 150 ft. to 200 ft. high, and from 12ft. or 14ft. to 28 ft. or 30ft. in 

 circumference. " These trees," Captain Hunter continues, "from their immense 

 height, have a very noble appearance, being, in general, very straight, and free 

 from branches to 40 ft., and sometimes 60 ft., above the 

 ground." When some of these trees were felled, Captain 

 Hunter observed that "most of them discharged a consider- 

 able quantity of clear water, which continued to flow at every 

 fresh cut of the axe." He adds, that 

 there was no turpentine in them, but what 

 circulated " between the bark and the 

 body of the tree, and which is soluble in 

 water;" also, that the timber is very 

 short-grained and spongy. He states that 

 the wood is so heavy, that 5 trees out oV 

 6, when cut down, sank in water; but that, 

 out of 37 trees cut down for repairing a 

 ship, 27 were found defective. In green- 

 houses near London, the rate of growth 

 is 1 ft. or more a year; and a tree in the 

 palm-house of Messrs. Loddiges attained 

 the height of 40 ft., when it was stopped 

 l n its progress by the glass roof, but, in general, this is the 

 case when they are less than half that height. 



Geography, History t S?c. The Araucaria excelsa is a native 



of New Caledonia, in Queen Charlotte's Foreland, and on 



a small neighbouring island, which is a mere sand-bank, 2301 



only \ of a mile in circuit; also on the Isle of Pines, where it was found 



I optaifl Cook. It was subsequently found by Dr. Brown, when on 



board the Investigator, with Captain Flinders, growing in great abundance 



Feral parts of the east coast of New Holland; but it was there not 



above 60 ft. or 70 ft. in height. It was introduced, according to Lambert, by 



G nor Philip; but, according to the Hortus Kcuwnsis, by Sir Joseph 



Banks, in 1703. The plant is not uncommon in green-house collections, 



in most of which, in a i'cw years, it grows as high as the roof will admit. 



I I at Kc.v, which was at one time the largest in the country, was tried 



in the "pen air, and died the first winter. One in the conservatory in 



the Hammersmith Nursery, which was planted in April, I HOI-, in seven years 



i high a the glass, and was obliged to be cut down; and this has been 



■ 04 Btedty since. It has now wide-spreading, pendulous, deep green 



