Araucaria is a genus of Coniferae with evergreen leaves, of a singularly geometric habit of growth, belonging to the southern hemisphere. The species are large trees with pretty large, stiff, flattened, and generally imbricated leaves, verticillate spreading branches, and bearing large cones, each scale having a single large seed. The species best known in Britain is Araucaria imbricdta (popularly known as the Chili pine or puzzle-monkey), which is quite hardy. It is a native of the mountains of southern Chili, where it forms vast forests and yields a hard durable wood. Its seeds are eaten when roasted. The MoretonBaypine of New South Wales (Araucaria Cunninghamii) supplies a valuable timber used in house and boat building, in making furniture, and in other carpenter work. A species, Araucaria excelsa, or Norfolk Island pine abounds in several of the South Sea Islands, where it attains a height of 67 metres with a circumference of 9 meters, and is described as one of the most beautiful of trees. Its foliage is light and graceful, and quite unlike that of Araucaria imbricata, having nothing of of its stiff formality. Its timber is of some value, being white, tough, and close-grained. Research Araucaria
Coniferae (the Conifers) are the pines, firs, and their allies, a natural order of gymnospermous exogens, the essential character of which consists in the manner in which the ovules, not inclosed in an ovary, receive directly the action of the pollen without the intervention of a stigma. The ovules in these plants are borne on scales or modified leaves, which are spread out, not folded, and generally grouped in such a manner as to form a cone composed of a greater or smaller number of these leaves, of which only a portion may be fertile and bear ovules. The disposition, of the ovules in relation to these scales permits of a division of the Coniferae into three distinct families or tribes.
In the Cupressineae, which include the juniper, cypress, etc, the cones are formed of simple scales, each of which bears towards the base of its superior surface the ovules erect and sessile.
The second family, Abietineae, has in place of simple scales, scales actually double or formed of two parts; the lower one usually designated the bract; the other bearing at its base the ovules reversed. This family includes the pines, firs, and larches, the araucarias, Wellingtonias, dammaras, etc. In these two families the ovules are completely covered by the scales which constitute the cones, which unite after fecun-dation, and inclose the seed till their maturity.
In the Taxineae, which constitute the third family, the scales are short, imperfect, and partly sterile, and neither cover the ovules at the period of fecundation nor at that of maturation. The ovules are usually set in the same manner as in the Cupressineae. The yew, the gingko, etc, belong to this family.
The Conifers are found in large forests in the north of Europe and America, and are of great importance as timber trees. They abound also in resinous juices and yield turpentine, pitch, tar, succinic acid, etc. The leaves are usually alternate, and awl or needle shaped, the naked flowers are monoecious or dioecious, the male flowers being in deciduous catkins, the female in cones. Research Coniferae
The dammar pine (dammara pine) is a genus of trees of the family Coniferae distinguished by their large lanceolated leathery leaves, and by their seeds having a wing on one side instead of proceeding from the end. The Dammara orientalis is a lofty tree of the East IndiaArchipelago, attaining on some of the Molucca Islands a height of from 80 to 100 feet. It yields one variety of dammar resin. The Kauri pine, or Dammara australis, found only in the North Island of New Zealand, is a magnificent tree, rising to a height of 150 to 160 feet, and yielding kauri gum. Research Dammar Pine
Juniper is the name of hardy exogenous evergreen trees and shrubs of the genusJuniperus, chiefly natives of the northern parts of the world. They belong to the natural order Coniferae, group Gymnospermeae. The common juniper (Juniperus communis) grows wild in all the northern parts of Europe, and is abundant on the mountains of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and on low ground in the northern parts. The berries require two years to come to maturity, when they assume a bluish-black colour. Juniper has prickly needle-like blue-green leaves arranged in whorls of three on reddish-brown flexible twigs and dark purple berries of a pungent taste. The juice of the berries is extracted and used as a diuretic and flavouring in gin etc.
Picea (popularly known as the spruces) is a genus of hardy evergreen trees belonging to the family Coniferae. They bear monoecious flowers, and needle- shaped leaves, and more or less ovoid cones, the bracts of which do not fall away at maturity. Among the species are the White Spruce (Picea alba) a native of Canada, the Black Spruce (Picea nigra) grown in north America for the manufacture of paper pulp and the Norway Spruce (Picea excelsa), grown for timber. Research Picea
The Sequoia is the genus of the world's largest trees, growing to over 80 metres tall. The two species are evergreen and belong to the family Coniferae, both are confined to the western part of North America. Research Sequoia
Taxodium is a genus of hardy and half-hardy trees of the family Coniferae, native to the USA from whence they were introduced into Britain in 1640. They bear deciduousleaves in summer and monoecious flowers. The genus includes the cypresses. Research Taxodium
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Araucaria
