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44 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Araucaria 45
ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA, CHILEAN ARAUCARIA
Arancaria imbricata, Pavon, in Mem. Acad. Med. Madrid, i . 199 (1797); Lambert, Genus Pitms,
106, t. 56, 57 (1832); Loudon, Arb. et. Frut. Brit. iv. 2432 (1844); Kent in VeitcKs Man.
Conifera, ed. 2, 297 (1900).
Araucaria Dombeyi, A. Rich. Conif. 86, t. 20 (1826).
Araucaria chilensis, Mirb., Mem. Mm. Par. xiii. 49 (1825).
Araucaria araitcana, C. Koch, Dendr. ii. 206 (1873).
Pinus araucana, Molina, Sagg. Storia Nat. Chile, 1 82 (1782).
Dombeya chilensis, Lamarck, Encycl. ii. 301 (1786).
Araucaria imbricata is the oldest name under the correct genus Araucaria, and is, moreover, the one
most generally used. Pi/Ion is the Spanish name in Chile, Pehuen the Indian name.
Araiicaria imbricata is a tree usually 50 to 100 feet high, 1 with a cylindrical stem,
only slightly tapering in adult trees, and attaining 3 to 5 feet in diameter. The
bark is very rough and divided into large thick irregularly pentagonal or hexagonal
scales. The branches, in whorls of 6 or 7, are at first very spreading, and in
young or isolated individuals persist for a long time, but in the forest generally fall
off until a broad umbrella-shaped crown of very crowded branches remains. In
certain cases, 2 secondary shoots appear on the trunk among the older branches as
they die off.
Leaves: all of one kind, spirally crowded on the branches, sessile, coriaceous,
rigid, ovate-lanceolate, with a sharp point at the apex, slightly concave on the upper
surface, glabrous, bright shining green, marked with longitudinal lines, bearing
stomata on both surfaces, margins cartilaginous; persistent for 10 or 15 years,
withering during the later period of their life; their remains may be seen for a long
time on the trunk and branches as narrow transverse ridges.
Male flowers: catkins almost cylindrical in shape, solitary or 2 to 6 in a
cluster, terminal, sessile, erect, 3 to 5 inches long, yellow in colour, composed of
densely packed anther scales, the tips of which are sharply pointed and recurved ;
pollen sacs 6 to 9. The male flowers frequently remain intact on the tree for
several years; they generally in Europe appear early in spring, the pollen escaping
in June or July.
Female flowers: ovoid, solitary, terminal, erect, about 3 inches long, composed
of numerous wedge-shaped scales, terminating in long, narrow, brittle points.
Cones: globular, brown in colour, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, falling to pieces
when the seeds are ripe (in England in late summer, in Chile in January or
February). The cones take two years to ripen, fertilisation occurring in the second
year in June or July, when the scales open and expose the ovule to the pollen blown
from neighbouring staminate trees. Three months after fertilisation the seeds are
fully matured.
Seeds : adnate to the scale and falling with it, i to \\ inch long, wingless,
covered by a thick brown coat. There are about 300 seeds in a cone.
1 I have seen in Chile trees exceeding even 100 feet in height. (H. J. E.)
2 Such a case exists in a large tree at Tortworth Court. (H. J. E.)
i
Seedling.—The cotyledons are two in number, and on germination remain below
the soil enclosed in the seed (Plate 15 F). The caulicle, to which is attached the
cotyledons, is thick, fleshy, and carrot-shaped, serving as a store of nutriment for the
plant after that of the cotyledons is exhausted; it is directed downward into the soil,
and terminates in a long, slender, fibrous root, which gives off a few lateral rootlets.
The plumule, the portion of the axis with its accompanying leaves, which is formed
in the embryo prior to generation, protrudes between the stalks of the cotyledons,
speedily becomes erect, and develops into the young stem, which bears leaves
similar in shape to those of the adult plant. The cotyledons sometime after the
stem has grown well above ground wither away, the ends of their stalks being visible
on the upper part of the caulicle. At the end of the first season the stem is 4 or 5
inches long, and bears alternate leaves about f inch long, gradually increasing in
size from below upwards and forming a crowded tuft at the summit. The lower
end or so of the stem is reddish, with leaves small and scale-like. The fusiform
caulicle, about an inch in length, is continued below into a root 8 or 9 inches
long.
Sexes.—The Araucaria is usually dioecious, the trees being either male or
female. It was long supposed that there was a difference in the habit of the two
sexes, due, doubtless, to Pavon's account of the matter. Araucarias differ, however,
remarkably in habit, and no inference can be drawn as to sex from the habit or
character of the growth of an individual. Monoecious trees (as is the case in nearly
every dioecious species) are of exceptional and very rare occurrence. The most
noted of these occurred at Bicton. 1 Other cases have been recorded from South
Lytchett,2 near Poole, and Pencarrow in Cornwall. 3 (A. H.)
DISTRIBUTION
This remarkable tree was discovered in or about 1780 by a Spaniard, Don
Francisco Dendariarena, who was employed by the Spanish Government to examine
the trees in the country of the Araucanos, with the object of finding out those
whose timber was best suited for shipbuilding. His account of its discovery, as
quoted by Lambert, pp. 106-108, is as follows:
"In September 1782 I left my companion, Don Hippolito Ruiz, and visited
the mountains named Caramavida and Nahuelbuta belonging to the Llanista,
Peguen, and Araucano Indians. Amongst many plants which were the result of my
two months' excursion, I found in flower and fruit the tree I am about to describe.
" The chain or cordillera of the Andes offers to the view in general a rocky
soil, in parts wet and boggy, on account of the abundance of rain and snow which
fall in these regions, similar to many provinces in Spain. There are to be seen large
forests of this tree which rises to the amazing height of 150 feet, its trunk quite
straight and without knots, ending in a pyramid formed of horizontal branches which
decrease in length gradually towards the top, and is covered with a double bark, the
1 Card. Chron. 1 890, viii. 588, 593, Fig. 118. L.c. 7 53- 3 Specimens in the museum at Kew.