62 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



Agathis australis. 



The Kauri Pine is one of the most magnificent timber trees 

 known, but it is unfortunately fast disappearing under the 

 onslaughts of bush fires and needy colonists. Nor are 

 new plantations formed, as is the case with many other trees, 

 for the kauri is of such slow growth, that no man thinks it 

 worth his while to plant trees which take a thousand years 

 to mature. A kauri forest is a wonderful sight, with the 

 clean, erect stems rising like grey columns to a height of 

 from 80 to 100 feet, — sometimes 60 or 70 feet without throwing 

 out a branch. The bark is thick and lead-coloured, and 

 peels off in heavy flakes. " The ashy hue of the bark 

 appears under certain atmospheric conditions to surround 

 the trunks with an undefined haze.'"'' Though from 80 to 

 100 feet is the usual height of the forest kauri, trees have 

 been found 150 feet high. There is a specimen at Mercury 

 Bay, which is 80 feet to the lowest branch, and 24 feet in 

 diameter. A tree five feet in diameter has been calculated to 

 be three centuries old. The undergrowth is usually not so 

 thick in a kauri forest as in ordinary mixed bush. A small 

 tree-fern, Nikau palms, a variety of Astelia, the fragrant 

 crimson Alseuosmia, and the climbing fern {Lygodium 

 articiilatum) are, however, often found growing under the 

 stately pines. 



The germinating kauri develops two seed leaves, narrow 

 and flat, extremely unlike any of those produced by the pines 

 of the Northern Hemisphere. The leaves in the young plants 

 are often spotted, and are of a reddish brown colour. They 

 have no foot-stalks. The older leaves are thick, leathery, and 

 green. The branches are large and spreading, — leafy towards 

 the top of the tree. The male and female flowers are 

 produced in separate cones on the same tree ; the 

 male catkins being one inch long, and the cones almost 



*Kirk's Forest Flora of New Zealand. 



