64 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Febkuary, 
bark of the branches is concealed by them, 
and even the trunk is for a long time clothed 
by the persistent leaves. Generally, though 
not invariably, the staminate and pistil- 
Fig. 2. —SMALL BRANCH OF THE CHILI PINE. 
late, or fertile flowers are borne upon differ¬ 
ent trees, in catkins at the extremities of the 
branches. The former fall away after shed¬ 
ding their pollen, but the others increase in 
size to form a cone, which is ripe at the end 
of the second year. The cone is nearly glob¬ 
ular, about eight inches in diameter, each 
scale having a large seed about two inches 
long. These seeds, of which there are about 
two hundred in a cone, form a large share 
of the food of the Araucanos Indians, who 
eat them raw and cooked, and prepare from 
them a kind of flour. The wood of the tree 
is hard and heavy, yellowish, and hand¬ 
somely veined. The tree yields a resin which, 
in Chili, is used medicinally. The Chili Pine 
was introduced into England by the botanist 
Menzies, in 1795 ; one of the trees he brought 
home was planted at Kew, where we saw it 
in 1880, the oldest specimen in cultivation. 
The tree being so completely clothed with 
foliage, has a strikingly massive effect, and 
the regular disposition of its branches give it 
a formal aspect quite unlike that of any other. 
In England it is much planted singly, and in 
avenues ; the climate of the Island of Jersey 
is very favorable for it, and almost every 
place of any pretension has one or more 
' ‘ Monkey Puzzlers ” upon the lawn. This 
name, which seems as if given the tree by a 
sailor, is descriptive if not elegant, as it would 
puzzle almost any animal to climb its trunk 
and branches, thickly covered with prickly 
leaves. Mr. Josiah Hoopes, in his excellent 
“ Book of Evergreens,” states that the tree is 
not hardy with him in Westchester Co., Pa. 
It was formerly said to be hardy in Washing¬ 
ton, but Mr. Wm. Saunders informs us that 
this is not the case, and he doubts if it can 
be relied upon anywhere north of the Po¬ 
tomac. It is probable that south of Wash¬ 
ington it may be planted with success, and 
our friends in southern lo¬ 
calities who try it should be 
careful to give it a well 
drained spot. A specimen 
in a sheltered garden about 
10 miles north of New York 
City, was watched by us 
with interest for several 
years. One spring we found 
that the tree was gone—but 
the owner had moved and 
taken it with him. So strik¬ 
ing a tree is worth the trou¬ 
ble of growing a small spec¬ 
imen in a tub or box, to be 
put out in summer and re¬ 
moved under shelter in win¬ 
ter. The engraving, fig. 1, 
shows a young tree. In the 
older trees the branches be- 
• come much subdivided, and 
the whole presents a dense 
mass of green. The form 
of the leaves, and the man¬ 
ner in which they cover the 
branches, is shown in figure 
2. Some of the other spe¬ 
cies are remarkable for their 
beauty of habit and feathery 
foliage, and are often used 
in the decoration of conser¬ 
vatories. Perhaps the finest 
of these is the Norfolk Island 
Pine, Araucaria excelsa, 
which in its native country, 
an island in the Pacific, 
reaches 200 to 225 feet in 
higlit, and 11 feet in diameter at the base 
of the tree. Its wood is remarkably lieavv. 
Japan and Other Lillies. 
If asked how an ardent admirer of flowers 
could procure the greatest amount of satis¬ 
the Tiger Lily, the Turk’s Cap, and the old 
White Lily made up the catalogue of those 
in general cultivation. The opening of com¬ 
merce with Japan was followed by a wonder¬ 
ful improvement in our gardens, especially in 
the beauty and variety of Lilies that came to 
to us from that country. Of course we have 
fine Lilies from other countries, but it was 
those from Japan that first made a marked 
sensation among flower growers, and gave a 
strong impulse to Lily-culture. The first of 
these, and still called the Japan Lily, was 
Lilium speciosum, (sometimes, incorrectly, L. 
lancifolium), which was for some years 
treated as a greenhouse plant, and the price 
at first paid for a single bulb, will now pur¬ 
chase hundreds. Japan furnished us with 
three varieties of this species, a white, a rose- 
colored, and one with dark-red spots. Since 
then several others have been produced from 
seed,.notably “Melpomene,” and one or two 
others raised by C. M. Hovey, which in ricli- 
nesss of coloring far exceed the originals. 
One of the most beautiful of all the varieties 
of this Lily is that called prcecox. This bears 
its flowers on very long stalks, and strong 
bulbs produce a dozen or more; they are 
smaller than in the other varieties, and more 
regular in form. The engraving, much re¬ 
duced in size, gives the form and habit of this 
beautiful variety. The flowers are pure white, 
except occasionally a tinge of pink near the 
ends of the petals. The warty projections— 
or fringe, as florists term it—near the base of 
the petals, are unusually numerous and 
prominent, and add greatly to the beauty of 
the flower. This variety is quite as hardy as 
the others, and would be more generally cul¬ 
tivated were it better known. The florists 
have found out its superiority, and its flowers 
are in demand for decorative work. By the 
way, the florists have a trick in working with 
Lilies, which it is well for others to know. 
The anthers in Lilies are very large, and pro¬ 
duce a great deal of pollen, which, when the 
flowers are disturbed by handling, falls upon 
and soils the petals, often in an unsightly 
manner. Those who supply florists with 
the japan LILY ( Lilium speciosum, var. Prcecox). 
faction for the least outlay of money, we 
should say, expend a good share of the sum 
appropriated in Lilies. One need not have a 
very long memory to recall the time when 
these flowers, first pick off the anthers, to 
prevent this trouble. The propagation of this 
and other varieties of L. speciosum, as well 
as of most other species of Lily, is very easy ; 
