that loithstood the severe Winter 0/ 1878-79. 53 



render this an important addition to our ornamental wall 

 plants ; and a closely allied species (P. Colensoi) has 

 thriven for a number of years in the shrubbery of my 

 neighbour, I. Anderson-Henry, Esq. of "Woodend, at Hay 

 Lodge, where they now measure from 6 feet to over 13 

 feet in height. 



2. Plagianthus BETULiNus (Ribbon-trec of the settlers, and 

 Houi of the Maori natives). — Described in Sir J. D. Hooker's 

 "Handbook of the New Zealand Flora" as a lofty tree, attain- 

 ing 40 to 70 feet in height, but that its wood is worthless ; 

 and by Captain J. Campbell Walker, Conservator of State 

 Forests, in his Report of 1877, as "a graceful tree, 30 to 50 

 feet high, having white, compact, fissile, but not durable 

 wood." Of several trees that I raised from seeds about ten 

 years since, one that was planted in the open ground now 

 measures fully 15 feet in height, and one on the south wall 

 of my house is 23 feet. Both are of straight handsome 

 growth, bearing considerable resemblance to our native 

 weeping birch, especially in the size and form of their 

 lower leaves, but those on the upper branches are three to 

 four times larger. You will see by the branches before 

 you that they are remarkably tough, so much so that they 

 may be used like packing twine in tying ; and I have 

 found them very serviceable for fastening the branches of 

 wall trees, not as is usually done with twisted willows, 

 but by knot-tying. In fact, their toughness is so remark- 

 able, that on the occasion of a Botanical Club visit in 1877, 

 the members admitted that they had never seen such 

 toughness in any unmanufactured vegetable substance. 

 Having devoted considerable attention in endeavouring to 

 discover a vegetable fibre capable of being profitably 

 cultivated for paper making, I some years since felt 

 satisfied that the tough fibrous twigs and wood of the 

 ribbon-tree would be much more suitable for forming 

 paper-pulp than the native poplar, fir, or other tree? now 

 in most demand for that purpose, and in this opinion I 

 have been fully confirmed by that of eminent paper-makers 

 and others well-qualified to judge. Neither of my plants 

 have as yet flowered; and as their propagation is somewhat 

 difficult as well as tedious, seeds will have to be procured 

 in considerable quantity from the native habitats of the 



