CONIFERS. 
-THE ARAUCARIA. 
543 
{Araucaria imbricata.) 
CONIFER^.— 
' Araucaria, Jussieu. Derived from Arau- 
cos, a name applied to the natives in those" 
districts of Chili where the tree is indigenous. 
— Noble evergreen trees. 
Araucaria imbricata, Pavon (imbricate- 
leaved Araucaria, or Chili Pine). — Leaves 
generally eight together, ovate lance-shaped, 
thickened at the base, stiff, straight, with per- 
sistent mucros. Cones globular at the end of 
the branches, about the size of a man's head ; 
scales beautifully imbricated. 
A very remarkable evergreen tree, of mag- 
nificent dimensions, almost the only one to be 
met with in those districts where it is indi- 
genous. It is a high tree, from 80 to 100 
feet, with a trunk like a pillar. Standing 
closely together in the forest, the trees are 
generally devoid of branches to the height of 
fifty or sixty feet : the top is in the shape of a 
depressed cone, the side-branches proceeding 
from the trunk in a horizontal direction, and 
ascending slightly at the tips. Over those 
branches the leaves are thickly set like scales, 
which give an appearance of rich embossed 
work. From the thick coating of leaves 
which pervades the whole outline of the tree, 
an idea of extreme brittleness is conveyed to 
the mind. The wood, however, was success- 
fully used in ship-building in 1780 by Don 
Francisco Dendariarena. 
This plant is a native of the mountainous 
parts of Chili, in South America, particularly 
in that division occupied by the tribes of original 
The Araucaria. 
inhabitants called Araucos, from whom the tree 
derives its name ; and from the fact that the 
climate where it thrives has accommodated 
itself so wonderfully to European productions, 
a hope may be held out that the Araucaria 
may in this country prove a valuable acqui- 
sition to the arboriculturist. The largest 
forests of this tree are on the elevated parts 
of Naguelbuta and Caramavida, which Pavon 
describes as " offering to the view, in general, 
a rocky soil, though in parts it is wet and 
boggy, on account of the abundance of rain 
and snow which falls in these regions, similar 
to many provinces in Spain." Pceppig, a 
traveller in the Peruvian Andes, states, that 
" the Araucaria forest of Antuco is the most 
northerly that is known in Chili ; so that the 
northern boundary of this king of all the 
extra-tropical American trees may be esti- 
mated at thirty- six degrees south latitude. 
The extreme southern limit is not so clearly 
ascertained ; which is not surprising when 
we consider how little, comparatively, is 
known of Western Patagonia : it seems pro- 
bable, however, that it does not stretch far 
beyond lat. forty-six degrees. Between An- 
tuco and Valdivia this tree only grows 
among the Andes, and, as the Indians assert, 
solely on their western declivities, and nowhere 
lower than from 1,500 feet to 2,000 feet 
below the snow line, up to which they fre- 
quently reach. Farther to the south, the 
Araucaria appears at a lower elevation ; and 
