54 



BRITISH EOCENE ELORA. 



The existing species, eight to ten in number, better known by the name of Dammara^ 

 are natives of Australia, New Zealand, the Malayan and Eiji Isles, New Caledonia, and 

 New Hebrides. The best known species are the Amboyna and the Kauri Pine, both trees 

 exceeding 100 and even 180 feet in height. The latter is the most beautiful and cele- 

 brated of all the New Zealand Conifers, and except Athrotaxis, the only one bearing 

 cones. Its range is limited to the long and slender North-Western peninsula of the 

 North Island. The range of the tree depends upon the moist sea breeze and stiff clay 

 soil which are there united, for the Kauri loves to be near the sea, and the richest forests 

 and most luxuriant timber are found along the shores of Kaipara Harbour and its 

 affluents upon the coast of the peninsula. It grows in groups of trees of approximately 

 the same age, and thus clumps of 100, 200, 400, or 500 year^ old trees are met with. 

 Extensive districts formerly covered with the Kauri Pine are now destitute of them, and 

 half-decayed giant stems and the gum which the natives dig are, according to Hoch- 

 stetter," the only indications of the former extension of the woods over many large and 

 barren tracts. Its final extinction is feared to be as certain, and will probably be accom- 

 pHshed as speedily, as that of the Natives of New Zealand. 



Two cones from the Cretaceous have been described as Dammarites, which Schimper 

 believes, however, may be Cycadeous. 



There is slender evidence suggesting that an Agatlds near to A. robmta of Queensland, 

 or to some of the Malayan species, formed part of the Bournemouth Eocene Flora. The 

 leaf figured (PI. II, fig. 16) seems to have possessed the peculiar leathery texture and 

 silky face, with the very fine parallel venation, and twist at the base, characteristic of 

 Agathis, and fig. 21 represents a scale in no way dissimilar to a detached scale from the 

 cone of the same species. Saporta also is now convinced that an Agathis with the foliage 

 of Araucaria Cunnin(jhami existed side by side with species of Abies down to a very late 

 Miocene period. 



Genus — Araucaria. 



The Araucarias are dioecious, the pollen- and the ovule-bearing catkins being produced 

 on different trees, or rarely monoecious. The cones are globular, terminal, and erect, with 

 very numerous scales disposed in spiral rows, and more or less deciduous. The seed- 

 scales and the bract-scales are firmly soldered together, the combined scale presenting a 

 distinct double apex. The seeds are large, firmly adherent, and more or less laterally 

 winged. The leaves are coriaceous, spirally disposed, and persistent for many years. In 

 the division Columbea they are broad and scale like, and in Eutassa lanceolate and acute. 

 The Araucarias are lofty evergreen trees, natives of the Southern Hemisphere, with 



1 Individuals are supposed to reach an age of 700 or 800 years. 



2 • New Zealand,' Hochstetter, English edition, 1867, p. 143. 



