PINETUM DAKICUM. 



839 



Habitat. — Australia, especially on Norfolk Island ; also on parts 

 of the continent. 



This species has become very popular in Denmark. We have 

 wintered it indoors and in a frame. 



The Norfolk Island Pine is a beautiful-growing tree, frequently 

 attaining in its native country 180 feet in height ; specimens of 

 it have been seen that have even measured 228 feet in height 

 by 14 feet in circumference. It was first discovered by Captain 

 Cook, in his second voyage round the globe, on the extremity 

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

 a small neighbouring island, named by Captain Cook Botany 

 Island, which is a mere sand-bank ; also on another island, 

 called by our voyagers the Isle of Pines, from its being almost covered 

 with the above-mentioned tree. Captain Cook states : "If I except 

 New Zealand, I at this time knew of no island in the South Pacific 

 Ocean where a ship could supply herself with a mast or a j^ard, were 

 she ever so much distressed for want of one. Thus far the discovery 

 is, or may be, valuable. My carpenter was of opinion that these trees 

 would make exceedingly good masts. 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. The trees shoot 

 out their branches like all other Pines, but with this difference, that 

 they 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 branch like a bush. This was Avhat led some 

 on board into the extravagant notion of their being basalts." Captain 

 Hunter also gives a very interesting description of this Pine. In his 

 "Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island," 

 p. 194, he says: "The Pines which have been particularly spoken 

 of by Captain Cook, and by others who have lately visited this island, 

 are the most conspicuous of any trees here ; they grow to a prodigious 

 size, and are proportionably tall, being from 150 to 200 feet, and in 

 circumference from 12 to 14 feet, some to 28 and 30 feet. These 

 trees, from their immense height, have a very noble appearance, 

 being in general very straight and free from branches to 40 feet, some- 

 times 60 feet, above the ground. They have been by some thought 

 fit for masts for ships of any size. In length and diameter they certainly 

 are, but with respect to quality they are, in my opinion, wholly unfit ; 

 even admitting them to be sound, which, from experience, I know is 

 seldom the case. I employed the carpenters of the Sirius, while here, 

 to cut down a few sticks, which it was intended should be sent home 

 on the first opportunity, in order for trial in His Majesty's dockyards, 

 to see if they were, as has been said, fit for His Majesty's navy or 

 not. In providing a topmast and a topsail yard for a V 4-gun ship, a 



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