Aug. 1, 1865.1 THE TECHNOLOGIST. 
THE GENUS ARAUCARIA. 11 
are the spines on these young cones that the scales are completely hidden 
by them, and the cone much more resembles a fine head of fuller's 
teazel than the fruit of a coniferous tree. In the mature cone the 
scales are much more fully developed, and the spines have the appear- 
ance of small recurved hooks. 
The newest of all the Araucarias, and perhaps one of the most 
remarkable, whether as to its place of growth or its habit, is the A. 
Rulei, Muell. This was first known in England in 1861 or 1862, when 
small«6pecimens of the foliage were received by Sir W. J. Hooker, at 
Kew. The native habitat of this species is very limited ; the whole of 
the trees as yet discovered occupying a radius of only half a mile, and 
this on the summit of an extinct volcano, where the changes of season 
produce the greatest extremes of drought and heat, or rain and cold 
winds, and where no other vegetation exists for hundreds of feet below. 
It grows on a parallel lat. with A. Bidwilli, but situate at double the 
elevation of the habitat of that tree. It was discovered and introduced 
from Port Molle, by Mr. W. Duncan, collector to John Kule, Esq., of 
Victoria, in honour of whom Dr. Mueller has given it its specific name. 
It is a tree rising some 50 or 60 feet high, branching in like manner to 
A. imbricata, but the branches more thickly arranged round the stem, 
and these of a more rigid and tabular form, forking in all directions, 
at equidistances, in a most symmetrical manner. The leaves are very 
closely imbricated, of a dark, shining, green colour. Its nearest affinity 
is with A. imbricata, which it resembles in a remarkable degree in many 
points, but in others it is wholly distinct. Its beauty is said far "to 
surpass the last-named species, or even of any other species know r n. 
The cones are nearly spherical, the scales about an inch broad, termi- 
nating with a long, projecting narrow point, or scale, about an inch 
long. Of the economic uses of this species nothing is yet known, 
though it is probable the seeds are eaten like some of the other species. 
Mr. W. Bull, the well-known nurseryman, of the King's road, Chelsea, 
introduced this rare plant into this country. 
The following, from an account of two Araucarias, one of which is 
A. Rulei, is given by Dr. Mueller,* in his report on Lieut. Fitzalan's 
expedition : — "A. Cunninghami, found on Cumberland Islands, occurs 
southward to the vicinity of the Hastings Kiver. The branches, with 
immature fruit, gathered during the Burdekin expedition, accord fully 
with others from Moreton Bay, Bockhampton, and the Hastings River. 
It remains as yet unascertained whether more than one Araucaria 
belongs to the East Australian flora. Mr. Fitzalan offers on this pine 
the following notes : Very abundant from Percy's Island upwards. On 
Percy's Island it differs but little from the Moreton Bay pine, except in 
the invariable regularity of its branches — these being in regular tiers, 
opposite. The Moreton Bay pine is seldom so. As we go further 
north, this regularity increases, and the foliage becomes more glaucous, 
until, at Port Molle and on Whitsunday Island, the tree assumes the 
