ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA. 
5 
markings on the stems of these fossil plants have induced geologists to look upon them as allied to the Ferns 
and Lycopods of the present epoch.” But it is evident, from Professor Balfour’s researches and figures, that 
caution is required in coming to this conclusion. 
The next deposit after the coal measures in which remains occur, which have been referred to the 
Araucarias, is the Magnesian limestone. A specimen from it, first described by Lindley and Hutton, in 
their “ Fossil Flora,” under the name of Voltzia Phillipsii, has been subsequently referred by Endlicher to 
Araucarites , but the specimen, which is merely that of a few leaves adhering to a branchlet, is much too 
imperfect to allow of any reliable conclusion being come to either one way or other. 
In the lias at Lyme, a specimen of a branchlet with leaves was found, which has been described by 
Lindley and Hutton, under the name of Araucariaperegrina. This seems also a doubtful determination ; 
and the first formation in which fossil remains, whose Arattcarian character is well established, is the 
inferior Oolite. A specimen of a cone, which has been named Araucarites sphcerocarpa, has been found in 
a marine limestone of that epoch at Bruton, in Somersetshire, having doubtless been floated out to sea. It 
is not so nearly allied to the present species as to that section of A raucarias which is now confined to 
Australia and Polynesia. 
Leaves of two supposed species ( Araucarites acutifolius and Araucarites crassifolius ) have been 
found in the chalk of Bohemia; and a species (A raucarites gopperti), of which both leaves and a cone have 
been found, occurs in the Lignite of Hsering in the Tyrol. In the more recent deposits, we are not aware of 
any Araucarian fossils having been found. 
To come down to historic times, the first knowledge which civilized man had of this species was due 
to the Spanish Government, of whose operations Mr Clements Markham, in his “Travels in Peru,” has 
given an interesting account. During last century, all the settlements along the Pacific coast of South 
America belonged to Spain, and hearing from the settlers there of the Cinchona bark, and other valuable 
plants and natural products in the interior, they, with an enlightened liberality which has been so long 
allowed to slumber, that it sounds strange to our ears, organized a botanical expedition to explore the forests 
of Peru. It was composed of the botanists Don Jose Pavon, Don Hippolito Ruiz, Dombey (a Frenchman), 
and two artists, Brunete and Galvez. They embarked at Cadiz on November 4, 1777, and reached Callao, 
April 8, 1778. Having made a large collection of plants in the neighbourhood of Lima, and despatched 
them to Spain, they crossed the Andes, explored the forests of Tarma, and then proceeded to Huanuco. 
They traversed the valley of Chinchao, explored the hill of Cuchero, or Cocheros, near Huanuco, and dis¬ 
covered seven species of Cinchona trees, returning to Lima laden with the precious spoils of their expedi¬ 
tion. They then sailed for Chili, and, after exploring the greater part of that province, they returned to 
Lima, and sent off their botanical collections in fifty-three boxes, which were all lost in the shipwreck of 
the San Pedro de Alcantara, off the coast of Portugal, in 1780. Mr Dombey returned to Europe at 
about the same time. 
Meantime, in 1780, the Spanish squadron, then lying in the port of Talcaguano, required repairs, but 
no wood was at hand; and the settlers on the coast, near the Araucarian Indians, having reported the existence 
of trees on the mountains in the interior, Don Francisco Dendariarena was employed to ascertain if any 
trees were to be had suitable for shipbuilding, and to examine their fitness. He made the necessary explora¬ 
tions and experiments, and reported the discovery of the Araucaria, and that it was probably the best 
adapted for shipbuilding ; and timber of it was accordingly, somehow or other, procured to make the necessary 
repairs on the squadron. 
In 1782 the Government, struck by Dendariarena’s report, commissioned Don Pavon to search for 
the tree, in order to ascertain its range and distribution, and other points, with a view to utilizing it. 
Ruiz and Pavon consequently returned to Huanuco, explored the courses of the rivers Pozuza and 
Huancabamba, and eventually established themselves at the farm of Macora, near Huanuco, where they 
resided for two months with Don Francisco Pulgar and Don Juan Tafalla, who, by order of the king, had 
[ 32 ] d joined 
