293 
On the Conifer at of Tasmania. 
Mr. Cunningham remarks of it, that it forms a tree of irre¬ 
gular growth at Macquarie Harbour, from 60-70 feet high, and 
6-24 in circumference. 
Mr. Backhouse, in his valuable ms. notes in our possession, 
(and he is one of the few scientific persons who have seen this 
plant) says of it, that “ it forms a noble tree, growing in swampy 
places, of a widely pyramidal form; the branches rather droop, 
and the ultimate ones are pendent, like those of Cypress or White 
Cedar ; the trunk attains a height of about 100 feet, and is from 
22-26 in girth. The wood burns briskly, giving out a pleasant 
aromatic smell; it is close-grained, valuable for ship-timber, and 
all purposes to which pine-wood is applied, and may be obtained 
in logs 40-50 feet long.” Mr. Cunningham’s specimens do not 
present any of the pendulous branches; such are, however, sent 
by Mr. Gunn; they are nearly two-feet long, and covered with 
longer and more slender and flaccid twigs than the others. 
The most interesting account of the Huon Pine that I have 
ever seen, was written by my friend Mr. Lempriere, to whom I 
am indebted for much kindness, shown during a short visit I 
made to him, in company with Sir John and Lady Franklin. In 
Mr. Lcmpriere’s account of Macquarie Harbour,* he says : 
“ The Huon Pine unites great beauty to extensive utility. It 
attains the height of seventy feet; in circumference it seldom 
exceeds fifteen. It grows in a pyramidal form, extending its 
limits to a great distance, when smaller branches droop, some¬ 
thing in the same manner as the Weeping Willow ; the colour of 
the foliage is rich green. The Huon Pine affords an excellent 
substitute for deal; and is, indeed, in many respects superior to 
analogous to that of the ordinary strobilus, and particularly similar to that of Miarocachrys , 
is a further confirmation of the view Messrs. Brown and Bennett have taken of the place of 
the Podocarpi and Dacrydia in the Nat. Order Conifer a:. They remove them from the 
Taxinca and associate them with the True Pines (vid. Brown and Bennett In Plant, rar. 
Jav. p. 37). The arrangement of the female inflorescence in the form of a strobilus being 
the ordinary one amongst Conifer a, the Fluoti Pine may in this particular be regarded as the 
most fully developed of the little group, including Phyllocladus, Podocarpus , and Dacry- 
dium, to which it belongs. D. Colensoi , to which the present bears a considerable resem¬ 
blance, produces also several terminal female flowers, but one only ever arrives at maturity. 
Phyllocladus has often several mature seeds; but the foliaceous nature of the parts very 
much marks the resemblance of its inflorescence to an ordinary strobilus, which Is sufficiently 
evident in Dacrydiwn Franklinii. t 
* Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, fyc., v. ii. p. 110. It were much to lie desired 
that a similar organ to the Tasmanian Journal , for recording the valuable and otherwise lost 
knowledge possessed by the colonists, were established in some of our other colonies. 
