Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from Gardeners' chronicle, 21 January 1888, p. 82. The letter is dated to December 1887 as the latest that it could have been written for the paraphrase to be published on 21 January 1888.

[The Araucaria of New Guinea.—Among the plants of striking interest, observed by Messrs. Cuthbertson and Sayer during their ascent of Mount Obree,

2

In the Owen Stanley Range, ascended by Walter Cuthbertson in August/September 1887. See W. Lawes to M, 21 September 1887.

writes Baron von Mueller, one of the foremost is a coniferous tall tree, occupying rocky declivities at elevations from 6000 feet upwards. The careful examination of a fruit-bearing branchlet reveals the identity of this "Pine" with the

Araucaria Cunninghami

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3

A. cunninghamii?

of tropical and sub-tropical Eastern Australia, so well known in Europe as one of the noblest of conservatory trees. Dr. Beccari, when ascending Mount Arfak in Dutch New Guinea in 1877 came across the same Araucaria, which he likewise pronounced as not distinct from A. Cunninghami; but he noticed it at heights from about 3000-4000 feet, though the Italian explorer reached an altitude of fully 6000 feet. The occurrence of this Araucaria, on mountains so very widely apart in the great Papuan island, seems to indicate that much of the highland country there is likely occupied by this Pine, which fact — if it could be established — would be of geological significance and otherwise also be of physiographic importance. Professor David Don, so long ago as 1838 (Trans. Linn. Soc., Lond., xviii., 164) considered it not improbable ''that the interior of New Guinea might afford a species of Araucaria," an anticipation now realised. Mr. Sayer

4

William Sayer, who accompanied Cuthbertson as naturalist.

found the branchlets less vaguely spreading and more distichous than in the ordinary state of this tree in Australia. The

Araucaria Balansae

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from New Caledonia is closely akin to A. Cunninghami, as characterised in Australia and New Guinea. Here it may aptly further be noted, that

Araucaria Rulei

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was first described in the Gardeners' Chronicle for 1861, when a woodcut of the typical form was given.]

5

B61.09.01.