The Genus Araucaria. 419 



canians (the word signifying freedom), who inhabit the district 

 where A. imbricata abounds. 



If A. columnaris holds good as a species, decidedly the 

 most similar to it is A. excelsa ; indeed, the difference seems to 

 be so slight that many authors have united them under one 

 specific name (A. excelsa). In general habit and appearance 

 they so much resemble each other that to a casual observer 

 not the slightest difference could be detected, without it is in 

 the manner of branching, A. excelsa throwing out its branches 

 nearly horizontally and in regular whorls, while those of A. 

 columnaris are slightly inclined upwards, but this may not be 

 the case in old plants. Loudon considers them synonymous, 

 and says, " The A. excelsa is a native of New Caledonia, in 

 Queen Charlotte' s Foreland, and on a small neighbouring 

 island, which is a mere sandbank, only three-quarters of a mile 

 in circuit." After being discovered by Captain Cook, as 

 mentioned above, on the Isle of Pines, it was brought home 

 by Brown and Flinders, who found it growing abundantly on 

 the east coast of New Holland, and the tree was introduced 

 into this country about 1793. Of all the Araucarias the A. 

 excelsa is the most beautiful and graceful in habit. Its 

 naked, tapering trunk, with uniform branches clothed with 

 rich green foliage, makes it a very handsome object. The 

 leaves are not more than three-quarters of an inch long, awl- 

 shaped, and curved upwards. The plant is not hardy, but 

 grows well in a greenhouse, where it is fully protected from 

 the frost. There are several fine specimens of this beautiful 

 tree in the temperate house of the Royal Gardens, Kew, some 

 of them over twenty feet high. These trees would have been 

 much taller, but want of accommodation made it necessary to 

 cut them down repeatedly. The wood of Araucaria excelsa is 

 white, as indeed are most of the Coniferous woods ; the upper 

 part of the trunk is knotty, while the lower part is invariably 

 unsound- in old trees. It is, however, much used by the 

 natives in house-building and similar work. It forms a large 

 tree, averaging from 180 to 230 feet high. In the Sydney 

 Botanic Garden there are some remarkably fine specimens of 

 the Norfolk Island pine; in beauty and symmetry they are 

 said to have no equal; their perpendicular trunks, the regu- 

 larity of their branching, and being covered with the most, 

 beautiful dense foliage, give them a drooping feathery appear- 

 ance. Their age is computed to be about fifty or sixty years. 

 The largest of these trees has attained a height of seventy-six 

 feet, and a circumference near the base of twelve feet. This 

 tree has occasionally born fruit, the first time in 1839. Dr. 

 Bennett, in his Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia, 

 tells us that the first instance of perfect seeds having been pro- 



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