usually called "cowrie" or "kaudi." Samples of the timber were sent to England and 

 attracted much attention. It was suggested that it might prove serviceable for the 

 topmasts of the larger ships in the Navy, for which spars varying from 75 ft. to 85 ft. 

 in length were required ; and the Admiralty despatched two ships — the "Dromedary" 

 and the " Coromandel " — to obtain cargoes for experimental purposes. Other 

 consignments were obtained at a later date. A small export trade also sprang 

 up with Sydney, kauri timber being much preferred for building purposes to the 

 Australian timbers then in the market. All this drew attention to the kauri, and 

 by the year 1830 it was generally recognized that few timbers in any part of the 

 world equalled it for durability, ease with which it could be worked, and adapta- 

 bility to a great variety of purposes. After the establishment of British supremacy 

 and the colonization of the country kauri rapidly took the first place as a commercial 

 timber, a position which it has occupied ever since. 



So far as I can ascertain, the first scientific description of the kauri was given 

 by D. Don in the appendix to Lambert's " Pinetum," published in 1824. He recog- 

 nized its affinity to the Dammar pine of Borneo, and placed it in the same genus 

 under the name of Dammara australis. For many years it was almost universally 

 known by that title ; but it was eventually pointed out that Rumphius, who first 

 proposed the name of Dammara for the Bornean plant in 1741, had never given a 

 defijiition of the genus, but had simply associated with the Dammar pine two other 

 resin-bearing plants which did not even belong to the ConifercE. Under these 

 circumstances, Salisbury's name of Agathis, being the earliest accompanied with 

 a sufficient diagnosis, was accepted by Hooker and Bentham in the " Genera 

 Plantarum," and by Eichler in the " Pflanzenfamilien." Finally, at the Vienna 

 Conference, the name of Agathis was included in the " Nomina Conservanda," 

 or list of names which in any case must be retained. 



Being anxious to ascertain who supplied the specimens described by Don, I 

 induced Mr. Hemsley to trace the matter in the library at Kew. He has supplied 

 me with the following quotation from Lambert's " Pinetum " : " For the branch 

 represented in the plate I am indebted to the friendship of John Deas Thomson, 

 Esq., Commissioner of the Navy. It was brought home by Captain Downie, under 

 whose order two ships were sent by the Government some time ago for the purpose 

 of procuring timber for shipbuilding." I have ascertained that Captain Downie 

 was the master of the naval storeship " Coromandel," which visited New Zealand 

 in 1820 for the purpose of obtaining spars for the Royal Navy. 



The kauri is almost too well Icnown to need a special description. It is a lofty 

 forest-tree, with a massive columnar trunk and rounded almost bushy head. Its 

 average height is from 50 ft. to 120 ft., with a trunk 4 ft. to 10 ft. in diameter ; but 

 it may attain as much as 150 ft. or 170 ft., with a trunk 15 ft. to 22 ft. in diameter. 

 The leaves of the mature trees are crowded along the short stout branchlets, and 

 are from fin. to 1| in. in length. They are of a dull olive-green colour, very thick 

 and coriaceous, and linear-oblong in shape. The leaves of young plants are longer 

 and narrower, 2 in. to 4 in. long by J in. to | in. broad ; but they pass by insensible 

 gradations into those of the older trees. The flowers are invariably monoecious, 

 the males being axillary, and the females terminating short branchlets. The cones 

 are almost spherical when mature, and from 2 in. to 3 in. in diameter. As the 

 scales separate from the axis at maturity, the cones are seldom seen except when 

 a tree is felled. 



The kauri has a very limited geographical range. Some scattered trees exist 

 in the North Cape district, especially between Tapotopoto Bay and AVliangakea, 

 but it is not found in any quantity to the north of Ahipara and Mongonui. From 

 these two locaHties southwards to the Manukau Harbour on the west coast and 

 Tairua on the east is the proper home of the tree — the district which for seventy- 

 five years has suppUed almost the whole of the kauri timber used in the Dominion 

 or exported therefrom. Its extreme southern Umit on the east coast is near Maketu, 



