6 



KEW GAKDENS. 



bark spirally twisted, like tlie liorn of tlie N'arwlial. Its neigh- 

 bour is tlie true Deciduous Cypress, the Taxodium disitchum 

 from ISTorth America — a very elegant and feathery tree. These 

 are only the most obvious members of the coniferous party at 

 hand. Proceeding, the visitor leaves on the right the Temple of 

 the Sun and a grand Cedar of Lebanon ; — the Palm House, like 

 a gigantic bubble, is just visible in the distance, and draws him 

 on, in spite of the temptation to linger. Soon, an avenue of stand- 

 ard roses receives his footsteps ; but to continue even in that flow- 

 eiy path is impossible, for to the left appears what might be a tree 

 of the very olden time, out of the coal-mines or the quarries of 

 Craigleth — the Araucaria imbricata, the oldest specimen in Eu- 

 rope, brought home by Vancouver after his voyage round the 

 world. Larger individuals exist in the far eastern (or western) 

 banishments of the Old World, but senior es prior es. On one of 

 the topmost branches a}3pears something like a bird's-nest : — it is 

 a cone or globe. Such Lave been put fortli for several years past, 

 but all in vain. The tree is a solitary female. The hapless Arau- 

 caria mourns her absent lord ; and, unlike that wonderful instance 

 in the great Palm House, to be noticed presently, attests the sin- 

 cerity of her sorrow by producing only imperfect nuts. 



These dioecious plants are sad puzzles to the popular mind. But 

 the enthusiast in pines, when he enters the Museum^ will there 

 find, contrasted with the abortive English fruit, native specimens 

 from the mountains of Chile. The cone of the Araucaria imhri- 

 cata grown in the garden, and with imperfect seeds, is nearly 

 globular, and has an equatorial circumference of 16^ inches; an- 

 other, from South America, similar in form, measures in the same 

 way 20 inches ; another inches. The nuts are 2 inches long, 

 plump and smooth : and knowing that they are eaten for dessert, 

 like the kernels of the stone pine in Italy, one longs to taste of 

 the forbidden fruit. In a neighbouring compartment of the case 

 are other monstrous cones — e, g, that of Finus Coulteri (not 

 unanimously allow^ed to be a synonym of P. macrocarpa^) measur- 

 ing 10 inches from apex to base ; of P. Lamhertiana^ 13 inches : — 

 but the top of the tree are the cones of Bid will's Araucaria, the 

 Bunyali Bunyah, from Moreton Bay, North-East Australia, as big 

 as a child's head, and shaped like a pine-apple, only without the 

 crown. The nuts are even larger than those of A, imhricata, and 

 resemble a chestnut in flavour. The Aborigines of Australia at 



