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50 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
hearsay, and the sudden change of the climate, which here becomes an extremely
wet one, is probably the reason why the tree does not exist on the west coast in a
much higher latitude, as do the majority of the trees and plants which are associated
with it.
Another point in which I must differ from Poeppig is the bareness of the Arau-
caria forests of other vegetation. Though, of course, where the trees are closely-
crowded not many plants grow in their shade, yet the number of beautiful terrestrial
orchids and other plants which I found in the more open parts of the Araucaria
forest was very striking, and Miss North's observations in the Nahuelbuta range
quite confirm my opinion that the moderate shade of the Araucaria is not prejudicial
to herbaceous plants.
The soil on which it grows is mostly of volcanic origin, sometimes covered with
deep vegetable mould, but more usually dry and rocky; and the climate, though
warm and dry in the months of December, January, and February, is cold and wet
in winter.
The only exact particulars I can give of the climatic variations were taken
during the winter of 1901 at Rahue in the upper Biobio Valley, near Longuimay, at
an elevation of 700 metres, which is lower and thus probably warmer than that of the
Araucaria region. These observations I have condensed as follows :
Between April 21 and 30
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
i
i
i
i -,
1 11
i
i
3i
3
3 1
3
30
3!
23
MAXIMUM.
+ 26 (on 25th)
+ 19 (ist,25th)
+ 22 (on 27111)
+ 12 (on 27th)
+ 12 (on i
+ 24 (on 2yth)
+ 30 (on 1 7th)
+ 25 (on 2ist)
MINIMUM CENTIGRADE.
- 3 (on 30th)
- 7 (on 1 3th) snow on 7 days.
- 6 (on 24th) snow on 8 days.
5 (on icth) snow on 6 days.
I rain on 7 days.
.. / , . f snow on i day.
r 10 (on 2nd) -; , }
^ ' ( rain on 12 days.
? 6
p p
rain on 5 days.
snow on 2 days.
rain on 7 days.
Reduced to Fahrenheit this register shows a very similar climate to that of some
parts of England, very variable all the year round, but probably hotter and more
sunny in winter.
As regards the summer climate I may say that in the months of January and
February, which are the height of summer, it was never cold by day, and the sun and
wind often unpleasantly warm, but at night the thermometer often fell to near
freezing-point, and on one occasion, on ist February, my sponge was frozen in camp
just south of Lake Alumine at about 5000 feet. We know that the Araucaria has
borne in Great Britain temperatures below zero Fahr. without injury on dry and
suitable soil, but it evidently will not endure the continuous wet of the southern coast
region of Chile.
In the Forstliche Naturwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, 1 897, iv. 416-426, Dr.
Neger, who was naturalist on the Chilean Boundary Survey in 1896-97, gives an
Araucaria 51
account of Araucaria imbricata, which does not add anything of great importance
for English arboriculturists to what I have already stated. He says that there are
two types of Araucaria forest, one of which is characteristic of the rainy coast
mountain range of Nahuelbuta and the west side of the Andes on the Cordillera of
Pemehue; and the other, which is peculiar to the drier plateaux of the Argentine
territory, on the east side of the watershed. He refers to Reiche's account of the
Nahuelbuta forest in Englers Bot. Jahrbuch, xxii. no, which gives a good account
of the flora. He does not confirm the statement that the male trees are smaller in
size than the female, and speaks of trees occurring in deep valleys 40-50 metres high,
and 2-2i metres in diameter at about 3 feet, but does not give any exact measure
ments, so that this height is probably an estimate by the eye. He says that the
seeds do not ripen until May in the year after flowering, but I found them ripe in
February and fit to eat in January. He gives some excellent illustrations of Arau
caria forests on Nahuelbuta, one of which shows a wider and more unbroken extent
than any that I saw; another shows the ability of the tree to take root and grow in
the crevices of bare rock. Another shows a forest at the foot of the great volcanic
peak of Lanin, where some of the trees have been almost buried by sand and still
retain their upright position. Lastly, he gives a small map of the distribution which,
however, is not sufficiently detailed to be very accurate; this makes Antuco the
most northerly point, and a point somewhere north of lat. 40 , the southerly range of
the tree. He says that in the museum of Santiago there are geological evidences of
the existence at a former period of Araucaria as far north as the Puna of Atacama.
REMARKABLE TREES
The finest tree which until recently existed in England was at Dropmore, which,
however, began to die about four years ago, and was dead when the photograph
(Plate 19) was taken in June 1903. It is said 1 to have been purchased at a sale in
the Royal Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick in 1829, and in 1893 to have been
69 feet high. When felled in 1905 Mr. Page found it to be 78 feet 6 inches high,
and the butt was 27^ inches in diameter at the base under the bark, which was about
2 inches thick, the measurable timber in it being about 65 cubic feet.
There are many fine specimens at Beauport, Sussex, the seat of Sir Archibald
Lamb, Bart., where a plantation was made about forty years ago, which gives a better
idea of the Araucaria at home than any I have seen in England. It contains 27
trees on an area 102 paces round, and the inside trees are clearing themselves from
branches naturally. Twenty of them Sir A. Lamb says are over 50 feet high, and in
1905 I estimated them to contain an average of 25 cubic feet (Plate 20). The
largest tree at Beauport, as measured by Henry in 1904, was 74 feet high and 7 feet
9 inches in girth. The trees produce seeds freely, and a seedling growing in a chink
of the garden steps was 4 feet high in 1903, and in 1905 hacl grown at least 2 feet
more.
At Strathfieldsaye, Berks, the seat of the Duke of Wellington, the Araucaria has
produced self-sown seedlings, a group of which is shown in Plate 15 E.
1 Card. Chron. 1 893, i. 232 ; also I.e. 1 872, p. 1324.