842 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



others to Kew. From this circumstance the tree was called at first, 

 in England, "Sir Joseph Banks's Pine." The tree at Kew was kept 

 in a greenhouse until about 180G or 1808, when it was planted out 

 where it now stands. 



Don Joseph Pavon describes the wood of this tree as of a 

 yellowish- white, fibrous, and full of beautiful veins, capable of being 

 polished and worked with facility. He also states that it is well 

 adapted for shipbuilding, as was proved by the experiments of 

 Don Francisco Dendariarena in 1780. The resin, abounding in all 

 parts of the tree, is white ; its smell is like that of frankincense, and 

 its taste not unpleasant. It is applied as a plaster to contusions, and 

 for various medical purposes. The Indians regard the fruit as a 

 very nourishing food ; they eat it raw, as well as boiled and roasted, 

 and distil from it a kind of spirituous liquor. They have stated 

 times to collect the fruit, which they preserve to make use of as 

 required (Lamb. Pin. ed. 2, ii. 108). 



According to Pavon, the male tree, in its native country, grows 

 only to 30 or 40 feet high, while the female reaches 150 feet in height. 

 He gives the following account of it in a description published in the 

 "' Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Madrid " : "Its trunk 

 is quite straight and without knots, ending in a pyramid formed of 

 horizontal branches, which decrease in length gradually towards the 

 top ; it is covered with a double bark ; the inner is 5 or 6 inches 

 thick, spongy, tenacious, porous, and light, from which, as from 

 almost all other parts, resin flows in abundance ; the outer is of nearly 

 equal thickness, resembling cork cleft in various directions, and 

 equally resinous with the inner." 



An Araucaria imhricata planted in 1870 in the gardens of the 

 brewery at Carlsberg, near Copenhagen, has now reached a height of 

 24 feet and a circumference of the stem of 1 foot 10 inches. It is 

 not at all spoilt, and has kept its branches quite to the ground. In 

 the winter time it is covered with boards. 



Molde (62^ 44') is perhaps the most northern point in Norway 

 where a healthy, though slow-growing, specimen of Araucaria imhri- 

 cata is to be found. At Balestrand (61° 15') there is a plant of this 

 species. In the winter of 1876-7 the thermometer went down to 

 — 14° C. , and the cold continued till May 6th. In the winter of 1880-1, 

 which was very severe in Norway, the thermometer again went down 

 to — 14° C. , but the tree has flourished nevertheless. Balestrand is 

 therefore the most northern place in the world where a healthy and 

 fast-growing plant of A. imhricata is to be seen. It was planted in 

 the spring of 1873, and was then about a foot high. The first winter 

 it was covered with tan, but afterwards, till 1876, the ground was 

 only covered with broken branches of Junipenis communis. Since 

 then the plant has never been covered (Professor F. C. Schiibeler, 

 " Yiridarium Norvegicum," 1886, p. 445). In September 1885 it 



