iimiraincd soil, will at all answer the above test. Our experience leads i
fui-nihheil b)' the Edinburgh Botanic Garden represent rather too favourable
tree. suspect that, < erage, it will be found that the tree takes two years to produc
to diink that the instances
; to the growth of the
)ne to prepare the l)ud.s, and the other to push them forward.
Ccogmphical Distribution.—Ac cord ing to Pccppig, who made the most thorough expli
ofthii
Chili
species, th
so that th.
not so clearly asc
Western Patago:
Antuco and Vakl
tics, and nowhert
reach. Earth
about Osorno,
a mountain tl
groups of these be.
woods, offer
favourite hal
iraucaria forest of Antuco is the most northerly habitat of this specie;
.>rthern boundary may be estimated at 36° south latitude. The extremi
ccrtained, which is not surprising, when we consider how litde, comparati
;)nia; it seems probable, however, that it does not stretch far beyond lat.
divia this tree only grows upon the Andes, and, as the Indians assert, solel
rc lower than from 1500 feet to 2000 feet below th<
to the south, it is found growing at a lower elevation
; said to occur on mountains of a ver>- moderate
. rises opposite Chiloe, is said tu be studded, fri
ees. Of all other vegetation, the Ara
ition of the range
that is known "in
southern limit is
ely, is known of
S, Between
on their declivi-
V line, up to which they frequently
1: and in the countiy of the Cuncos, and
.Ititude, near the sea. The Corcovado,
n its foot to the snow line, with large
carian forests are as bare as the Pine
ait few pla
(Ptepp.
Its to interest the bot
n •• Comp, Bot. .Mat
. Steep
P- 2 4 35
rocky I
•6.)
dges, where there .-ater,
IIistory.~\i is generally believed that the An
traccd in past geological epochs as far back r
A rati
re ofwh
zria, ha^
ined to e Conifers o
hcn examined under the
ainly been found in the t
or cones, or anything like G
Re<l Sandstone that die pre;
have been describei.1 as such,
or their Coniferous nature lu
the same data;
lifers, have evei
icaria, or some form of tree closely allied to it, is to
the coal formations. Trunks of trees, the intimate
microscope, present much the Kime characters as those of the
oal strata ; and so have the remains of other trees in them been
but no undoubted and undisputed specimens of leaves, seeds,
been found in these deposits. It is not until after the New
opmi
regar
th;
a still
of the m
nee of Conifers has been satisfactorily established. It
)iit on examination they have either been pro\'ed to beli
been disputed; and it can, at the utmost, only be stated
nted from by authorities of as great weight as those who maintain it.
o-called gynmo-spermatoiis family generally. The Arauca-,
veaker grounds: it has not even the support of a disputed I
croscopic structure of the wood of the tninks of trees found
affinity
;af (
n the
tnie diat specimens
Ig to something else,
s matter of individual
That is the case as
in the coal formation
It rests en
measure, and e
rely on
M that
inperiect.
j\n instructive lesson,:
ihewing the necessity of caut
t itself, and the vcr>- species
ree, and at different depths,
em, if seen alone, and witl
ins of wholly different tre.
learned from the Araucaric
different parts of the same I
so different that cach of th
might be taken for portir
Edinburgh, from the examination of the
in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, and
bark and
vhich wer,
ces from such characters, may be
The appearance of the Iwrk at
ice is more or less denuded, is
xion with each other,
ceedings of the Royal Society
These trees had stood for
feet, with a circumference of
examining them, the Professor
regard to the bark, the scars ai
mteti by the outer a
.,v certain fossils
im drawing infe.
e have before us.
xording as its surfact
t knowledge of theii
This was first shi
timber of the two wcll-kn
killed by the severity of tl
. by Pr
n Arau.
if Edinburgh," iv. p, 557, 1862,)
upwards of thirty years, and one of them had attained the h
feet at the l>ase of the stem, and with twent)- whorls of 1
• Balfou
which s
of
1860-61. ("Pr
ces presi
hibited I
s. On
;:r. In
r found the timber very hard and heavy, ami likely to be valuable timb
ind markings, and their relation to the leaves, he ascertained that "the
and middle bark o{ Aramaria imbricata bore a marke<I resemblance t^
included in the genera Sigillaria and Lepidodendron. The sci.lpti
>'those
iresijue
arkings '
markings on the stems of these fossil plants have
and Lycopods of the present epoch." But it is i.
caution is required in coming to this conclusion.
induced geologists to look upon them as allied to the Ferns
vident, from Professor Balfour's researches antl figures, that
The next deposit after the coal measures in which remains occur, which have been referred to the
Araucarias, is the Magncsian limestone, A specimen from it, first described by Lindley antl I lutton, in
under the name of Voltsia Pkillipsii. has been subsequently rcfcrre<l by Enilliclier to
specimen, which is merely that of a few leaves adhering to a branchlet, is much too
liable conclusion being come to either one way or other.
specimen of a branchlet with leaves was found, which has been described by
r the name o\ Araucariaperegrina. This seems also a donbtfiil determination ;
which fossil remains, whose Araucarian character is well established, is the
their " Fossil FIoi
Araticarites, but the sf
imperfect to allow of ar
In the lias at Lynr
Lindley and Hutton, under
and the first formation i
inferior Oolite, A specimen of a cone, which has been nmviil Araiicarites spluvrocarpa, has been found in
a marine limestone of that epoch at Bruton, in Somersetshire, liaving doubdess lieen floated out to sea. It
is not so nearly allied to the present species as to that section oi A raucarias \\\nc}\
mfined to
Australia and Polynesia.
Leaves of two supposed species {Arajccarilcs acutifalius and Araucaritcs crassifolius) h:
found in the chalk of Bohemia; and a species [Araucaritcs gopperti), of which both leaves and a a
been found, occurs in the Lignite of I I.-ering in the Tyrol. In the more recent deposits, we are not
tiny Araucarian fossils having been found.
: been
of
To come down to histor
: times, the first knowledge which civilized man had of this species was due
;)f whose operations Mr Clements Markham, in his "Travels in Peru," has
During last century, all the sctdcments along the Pacific coast of South
ntl hearing from the settlers there of the Cinchona bark, and other \-aluable
a the interior, they, with an enlightened liberality which has been so long
ids strange to our cars, organized a botanical expedition to explore the forests
to the Spanish Government,
given an interesting account
America belonged to Spain,
plants and natural products
allowed to slumber, that it soi
of Peru. It was composed of the bota
and two artists, Bmnete and Galvez. '
April 8, 177S, Having made a large
them to Sixiin, they crossed the Andes,
They traversed the valley of Chinchao,
covered seven species of Cinchona trci
tion. They then sailed for Chili, and,
nists Don José Pavon, Don Hippolito Ruiz, Dombey (a Frenchman),
They embarked at Cadiz on November 4, 1777, and reached Callao,
collection of plants in the neighbourhood of Lima, and despatched
sploreel the forests of Tarma, antl then proceeded to Huanuco.
.plored the hill of Cuchcro, or Cocheros, near Huanuco, and (lis-
Li
the San P.
about the sr
ind sent off their botanical collections in fifty-th
n Pedro <le Alcantara, off the coast of Portiis
Meant!
:s, returning to
after exploring
-ima laden widi the precious spoils of their expedithe
greater j>art of that province, they returned to
rec boxes, which were all lost in the shipwreck of
Mr Dombey returned to Europe at
e till
. at h,-ir
of tre
i7vSo, the Sixinish i
;1; and the settlers 01
on the mountains in the interii
TC to be had suitable for shipbu
ad;ipted f<
i-eiiairs on
In I
the tree, i
Ruiz
e.\pcrui
r shipbt,
die squ
nd rq
and til
uadron, then lying in the port of Talcaguano, required rcp.n
the coast, near the Araucarian 1 ndians, having reported the e:
, Don Francisco Dentlariarena was employed to ascertain if
;ling. and to examine their fitness. I le made tl
:1 that it wa
; procured tt
.irted the discover)- of the Arajicc
iber of it was accordingly, s.
necessarj' cxploraprobably
the best
nake the necessary
ment, struck by Dendariarcna's report, commissioned Don Pavo
-tain its range and distribution, and other points, with a view to utili
isetpicntly returned to I luanuco, explored the courses of the rivi
tu.dly established diemselves at the farm of Macora, near Huani
•idi Don I-rancisco Ptilgar and Don Juan Tafalla, who, by order c
n to search for
zing it,
2rs Pozuza and
iico, \vhere they
if the king, had
joined