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230 ELOHA OF NEW ZEALAND. [Coni/eree.
A lofty, handsome forest-tree, 80-100 feet high, sometimes 38 in girth at 6 feet from the ground. At Nelson
Mr. Bidwill says it ascends from the sea to 3500 feet elevation. Branclilets pubescent. Leaves petiolate, 1 -lè inch
long, evergreen, not very coriaceous, oblong-ovate, deeply toothed; teeth smaUer and blunt in var. ft which has
more coriaceous leaves, the base cuneate, entrée. Male flowers in pubescent racemes at the end of the branches,
three together at the end of a common peduncle, pilose or pubescent and viscid, five-toothed. Involucres broadly
ovate ; divisions broad, coriaceous, lamellate ; lamellæ entire or cut. Nuts winged ; wings toothed at the apex.__
Mr. BidwiU considers the varieties of this enumerated ahove as the same species ; though they have a different
look, which is, I find, wholly confined to the leaves of var. ^ being more coriaceous, with smaller blunter teeth.
3. Fagus Solandri, Hook. fll. ; arbor elata, sempervirens, ramulis pubescentibus tomentosisve, foliis
parvis breve petiolatis lineari- v. ovato-oblongis obtusis integerrimis subtus albo-tomentosis, peduuculis fl.
masc. brevibus 1 -floris, perianthio cyathiformi, involucris parvis lamellatis tomentosis glabratisve, lamellis
inæqualibus integris dentatisve, nueibus alatis integerrimis. Eooh. Ic. Plant, t. 639. Cliffortioides oblonga,
Banks et Sol. MSS.
H a b . Mountains of tbe Northern and Middle Islands, Banks and Solander, Menzies, etc. Nelson,
3000-6000 feet, Bidwill. English name, “ White Birch,” Bidvnll.
A very beautiful lofty evergreen tree, attaining 100 feet in deep rich soft and 4-6 in diameter, varying much
according to exposure (Bidwill). Toung trees like young English Beeches. OU bark black, cracked ; young white,
smooffi, Hke Birch, which the wood also resembles, being close, tough, white, not durable under exposure, with no
oonspieuous medullary rays. Branchlets very densely pubescent. Leaves smaU, shortly petiolate, inch long,
Hnear or ovate-oblong, blunt, quite entire, obUque at the base, finely reticulated above, covered with white oppressed
down below. Male Jlowers shortly pedunculate. Perianth sobtary, broad, shallow, toothed. Imolucres glabrous
or tomentose; segments lameUate; lameUæ unequally toothed or entire. Nat smooth or downy; wings entire,
narrow.
4. Eagus Cliffortioides, Hook. fil. ; arbor v. arbuscula sempervirens, ramulis pubescentibus, foliis pro
genere minimis breve petiolatis ovatis obtusis integerrimis subtns albido-tomentosis, peduuculis 11. masc.
unifloris, perianthio cyathiformi, involucris pubescentibus lamellatis, lameUis dentatis, nueibus alatis. Eook
Ic. Plant, t. 673.
H ab. Mountains of the Northern and Middle Islands. Dusky Bay, Menzies; top of the Euahine
mountains, Colenso; mountains near Nelson, 5000-7000 feet, Bidwill.
Very similar indeed to F. Solandri, and also called “ White Birch,” bnt a more alpine plant. The most alpine
tree in New Zealand, covering the tops of the Nelson Mountains (alt. 6000-7000 feet) with a dense scrub, 6 feet
high, according to Mr. Bidwill. Leaves the smaUest of the genus, only i - i inch long, distinguished by their ob-
ovate shape from F. Solandri.
N a t . O r d . LXXXII. CONIFERÆ, Juss.
Gen. I. DAMMAEA,.
Flores dioici. El. . Amenta extra-axillaria. Stamina plurima, imbricata, subsessilia. Anthera
loculis 8-15 cyhndraceis, e basi connectivi duplici serie pendulis. E l. ? . Amenta terminalia. Squama
ebracteatæ ; ovula solitaria, inversa. Strohilus ovatus v. obovatus ; squamis dense imbricatis, axi deciduis.
Seminis testa late inæqualiter alata.
The Kawdi, Cowri, Kaudi, Kauri, Kowri, or Cowdi Blue of New Zealand, as it is indifferently spelt or misspelt
and pronounced, is too well-known a tree to require a detailed description for its identification ; I shall therefore
Cotli/eroe.] ELOllA OF NEW ZEALAND. 231
only briefly give its characters for the information of those who desfre to understand something about its curious structure.—
Dammara australis forms a tall erect tree, with whorled branches in its young state, but it has, when old, a tall
straight trunk, 80-100 feet high and 30 in girth, with a small bushy crown. Bark thick, yielding tears of resin
in great profusion ; enormous masses of a similar resin, many pounds in weight, are found in soil in many places
far from where these trees now grow, and are presumed to have the same origin, but I have been told that no living
trees produce such masses. Wood light, very strong, well adapted for shingles, masts, and many other purposes.
A highly-magnified delicate transverse section shows rings of growth, and no ducts, but a mass of woody
fibres so squeezed together as to look like a network of square cells ; a thin longitudinal slice shows the tubes of
wood to be marked with very curious discs. Such a structure of wood and such discs are common to all wood of
this Natural Order, and almost identifies it ; similar but not identical discs exist in Drimys .and its allies. Leaves
very coriaceous, scattered, in young plants lanceolate, 2-3 inches long, in old, oblong or obovate, glaucous, l - l g
inch. Male Jlowers consist of lateral cones, 1 inch long and diameter, covered with closely imbricating peltate
scales, which scales are modified anthers, with short filaments and a broad, dilated, coriaceous connectivum, from
which hang several cylindrical pollen-cells. Female Jlowers in terminal, large, obovate cones, with a woody axis,
around whicli coriaceous imbricating glaucous scales are whorled. Ovules naked, without any kind of ovarium or
perianth, solitary, one on each scale, inverted, the foramen pointing to the base of the scale. Fruit the well-known
obovate cone, whose deciduous woody scales bear each a single much-compressed seed. Testa hard, with a broad
wing on one side and a narrow one on the other. Embryo in the axis of a fleshy albumen, with a cylindrical
radicle and two blunt cotyledons. (Name from dammar, an Indian name for resin.)
I. Dammara australis. Lamb.; foliis junioribus oppositis linearibus lanceolatisqne senioribus alternis
obovatis obtusis enerviis, strobilis obovatis, squamis apice subacutis. Don, in Lamb. Pin.part 2,p . 14. t. 6.
A. Cunn. Prodr. Agatliis, Salish. Podocarpus ? zamiæfolius, A. Rich. Flora,
Hab. On the east coast of the North Island, from Mercury Bay northwards. Banks and Sol., etc.
Nat. name, “ Kauri;” “ Wari Kauri” of the fresh gum, “ Kapia” of that dug up. (Cultivated in England.)
Gen. I I . THUJA,
Flores monoici v. dioici, terminales. F l. c?. Amenta parva. Stamina plurima, axi inserta, laxe imbricata
; antherce loculi 4, connectivo dilatato excentrice peltato penduli. F l. ? . Amenta minima. Squamæ
paucæ, 4-fariam imbricatæ. Ovula squamulis gemina, erecta. Strobili squamæ laxe imbricatæ, demum
lignescentes, clausi, demum patuli. Semina gemina; testa alata.
The Arbor-vitæ (or Cypress, as it is called at Nelson) of New Zealand belongs to a genus found in South Chili,
Europe, and the Northern Temperate zone generally. T. Boniana forms a large dioecious tree, 30 feet high, 3-5 in
diameter. Bark stringy, also scaling (like Leptospermum). Wood fine-grained, close, heavy, dark, beautifiJ and
durable. Branches tortuous, terminal, horizontal in old plants, vertical in young, like Cypress ; all pinnate, much
flattened, uniformly covered with imbricating, coriaceous, small, ovate, rather blunt, broadly subulate or triangular
leaves ; young branches much compressed and broader, with the lateral rows of leaves longer ; those on the
upper and lower faces very small ; in old plants nearly tetragonous. Male Jlowers in small terminal catkins, \ inch
long, scarcely broader than the tips of the branches, of 10-15 loosely imbricating anthers ; filaments short ; connectivum
smooth, ovate, excentrically peltate; cells about four, pendulous from tbe connectivum. Female flowers also
in terminal catkins of a very different form, composed of four coriaceous scales, the two inner much tbe largest,
erect, horned at the back. Ovules two, at tbe base of the two large inner scales, erect. Ripe cone woody, 4 inch
long ; outer smaller scales sharp, inner longer, erect, blunt, all with a prominent curved subulate horn above the.
middle. Seeds four, erect, with a broad oblong membranous wing. (Name from to sacrifice.)
1. Thuja Doniana, Hook.; ramis piunatim ramosis, ramulis foliosis compressis, amentis foemineis