142 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFER.E 



furniture, cooperage, and many other purposes. The best 

 timber is said to be obtained from trees felled during the dormant 

 season. 



Resin (Dammar) is obtained from all parts of the tree and large 

 quantities of fossil resin (up to 15,000 tons) known as Kauri gum 

 are obtained annually from the sites of ancient Kauri forests. 

 Much of it is used in the manufacture of paint, varnish, and 

 linoleum. From the refuse of the resin motor spirit and tur- 

 pentine are obtained. In Commerce Report, December 2, 1920, 

 p. 984, an account is given of the reclamation of fossil resin from 

 the bogs of Auckland. It is stated that after the separation of 

 the resin 40 to 50 gallons of Kauri gum oil can be obtained from 

 every cubic yard of peat, which on distillation produces motor 

 spirit and turpentine. 



A. australis has been over-cut in New Zealand, and the New 

 Zealand Government has taken steps to protect the remaining 

 forests and to ensure regeneration. A tree of such general use- 

 fulness is worth all the attention that can be paid to it, and its 

 cultivation should be greatly extended. 



In England A. australis can only be grown out of doors in 

 the mildest parts of the country. A small plant was growing, 

 a few years ago, in the famous gardens at Tresco Abbey in the 

 Scilly Islands, and the species has been tried near Falmouth. 

 There is a specimen 35-40 ft. high in the Temperate House at 

 Kew which bears male and female flowers and matures its cones 

 frequently. Its introduction probably dates back to 1838, for, 

 according to Smith, Records of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Keiv, 

 72 (1880), this species was included in an importation of New 

 Zealand plants brought about through the instrumentality of Sir 

 William Symonds, then Surveyor to the Navy. He was desirous 

 of obtaining New Zealand timbers for the Navy and despatched 

 the ship Buffalo to bring home a cargo, giving instructions to the 

 officers to introduce young plants of the principal trees. Three 

 Wardian cases of plants were brought, and amongst the occu- 

 pants were Agaihis australis, Dacrydium cuyressinum, Podocarpus 

 Totara, and Phyllocladus trichomanoides . The original intro- 

 duction into Europe appears to have been in 1823. 



Cheeseman, III. New Zealand Flora, t. 184 (1914) ; Oardener's Chronicle, xx, 

 525 (1883) ; Kauri Gum Industry in New Zeal., Bull. Imp. Inst., xx, No. 3, 331 

 (1922). 



Agathis Beccarii, Warburg. 



A tree of medium size with short, stout, bluntly angled 

 branches, brownish in colour and sometimes slightly glaucous. 

 Buds rounded and covered by two or three closely pressed scales. 

 Leaves opposite or sub-opposite, lance-shaped, 2|-3| in. long, 

 ^1 in. broad, leathery, dark green above, paler beneath, apex 



