4 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
r 
undrained soil, will at all answer the above test. Our experience leads us to think that the instances 
furnished by the Edinburgh Botanic Garden represent rather too favourable results as to the growth of the 
tree. We suspect that, on the average, it will be found that the tree takes two years to produce an internode 
—one to prepare the buds, and the other to push them forward. 
Geographical Distribution—According to Poeppig, who made the most thorough exploration of the range 
of this species, the Araucaria forest of Antuco is the most northerly habitat of this species that is known in 
Chili; so that the northern boundary may be estimated at 36° 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 probable, however, that it does not stretch far beyond lat. 46° S. Between 
Antuco and Valdivia this tree only grows upon the Andes, and, as the Indians assert, solely on their declivi¬ 
ties, and nowhere lower than from 1500 feet to 2000 feet below the snow line, up to which they frequently 
reach. Farther to the south, it is found growing at a lower elevation ; and in the country of the Cuneos, and 
about Osorno, is said to occur on mountains of a very moderate altitude, near the sea. The Corcovado, 
a mountain that rises opposite Chiloe, is said to be studded, from its foot to the snow line, with large 
groups of these beautiful trees. Of all other vegetation, the Araucarian forests are as bare as the Pine 
woods, offering but few plants to interest the botanist. Steep rocky ridges, where there is no water, are its 
favourite habitat. (Poepp. in “Comp. Bot. Mag.,” iv. p. 2435-6.) 
History. —It is generally believed that the Araitcaria , or some form of tree closely allied to it, is to 
be traced in past geological epochs as far back as the coal formations. Trunks of trees, the intimate 
structure of which, when examined under the microscope, present much the same characters as those of the 
Araucaria , have certainly been found in the coal strata ; and so have the remains of other trees in them been 
determined to be Conifers on the same data; but no undoubted and undisputed specimens of leaves, seeds, 
or cones, or anything like Conifers, have ever been found in these deposits. It is not until after the New 
Red Sandstone that the presence of Conifers has been satisfactorily established. It is true that specimens 
have been described as such, but on examination they have either been proved to belong to something else, 
or their Coniferous nature has been disputed; and it can, at the utmost, only be stated as matter of individual 
opinion, dissented from by authorities of as great weight as those who maintain it. That is the case as 
regards the so-called gymno-spermatous family generally. The Araucarian affinity in the coal formation 
rests on still weaker grounds: it has not even the support of a disputed leaf or cone. It rests entirely on 
that of the microscopic structure of the wood of the trunks of trees found in the coal measure, and even that 
imperfect. 
An instructive lesson, shewing the necessity of caution in drawing inferences from such characters, may be 
learned from the Araucaria itself, and the very species we have before us. The appearance of the bark at 
different parts of the same tree, and at different depths, according as its surface is more or less denuded, is 
so different that each of them, if seen alone, and without knowledge of their connexion with each other, 
might be taken for portions of wholly different trees. This was first shewn by Professor Balfour, of 
Edinburgh, from the examination of the bark and timber of the two well-known Araucarias which stood 
in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, and which were killed by the severity of the winter of 1860-61. (“ Pro¬ 
ceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,” iv. p. 557, 1862.) 
These trees had stood for upwards of thirty years, and one of them had attained the height of 24^ 
feet, with a circumference of 4 feet at the base of the stem, and with twenty whorls of branches. On 
examining them, the Professor found the timber very hard and heavy, and likely to be valuable timber. In 
regard to the bark, the scars and markings, and their relation to the leaves, he ascertained that “ the appear¬ 
ances presented by the outer and middle bark of A raucaria imbricata bore a marked resemblance to those 
exhibited by certain fossils included in the genera Sigillaria and Lepidodendron. The sculpturesque 
markings 
