146 DACRYDIUM FRANKLINII. 



This remarkable tree was discovered during Captain Cook's first 

 voyage to the South Pacific Ocean 1768 1771, and Dr. Solander 

 who accompanied the expedition as botanist founded upon it the 

 genus Dacrydium. The following particulars respecting it are taken 

 from Kirk's " Forest Flora of New Zealand " : 



Dacrydium cupressinum occupies a larger area of the New Zealand 

 forests than any other native tree ; when growing in an open situation 

 it is extremely beautiful with its pendulous branches and conical 

 outline, but when surrounded with other trees it forms a comparatively 

 small round head with drooping branches ; its drooping habit is unique 

 amongst New Zealand Conifers. Its wood is adapted to a larger number 

 of important uses than that of any other tree .in the colony, bat its 

 intrinsic value is less than that of the Kauri Pine, Ayathis australis, 

 or the Totara, Podocarpus Totara. It supplies the chief timber 

 employed for general building purposes over two-thirds of the colony; 

 it is also extensively used for fencing and railway ties but not with 

 very satisfactory results as it is not durable in contact with the ground. 

 The wood is of a dark red colour with light red or yellow streaks, 

 and takes a high polish, it is thence much in request by cabinet- 

 makers in the manufacture of household furniture ; it is also used for 

 panelling both in public and private buildings. The bark is often 

 used by the tanner, but the amount of tannin contained in it is small,, 

 being only about 4 '3 per cent. 



In Great Britain Dacrydium cupressinum is occasionally used as a 

 decorative plant in its young state for the conservatory on account of 

 its gracefully pendulous habit. 



Dacrydium Franklinii. 



A tall pyramidal tree 80 100 feet high with a trunk 35 feet 

 in diameter at the base. Primary branches spreading or slightly 

 depressed; branchlets slender, pendulous with tetrastichous ramification,, 

 the herbaceous shoots short, close-set and often much divided. Leaves 

 bright green in decussate pairs; on the axial growths lanceolate- 

 rhomboidal, acute, sharply keeled, imbricated, free at the apex ; on th& 

 lateral shoots much smaller, ovoid-rhomboidal and concrescent. Staminate 

 flowers small, terminal or short recurved lateral branchlets, cylindric, 

 composed of fifteen twenty anthers with a deltoid connective. Ovuliferous 

 flowers in a curved terminal spike composed of "four eight adherent 

 scales on each of which is seated a sessile ovule whose outer integu- 

 ment is abbreviated and the apex of the inner is exserted and points 

 to the peduncle of the spike." 



Dacrydium Franklinii, Hooker fil in Lond. Journ. Bot. IV. 152, t. 6 (1845) ; 

 and Fl. Tasman I. 357, t. 100 A (1860). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 227. Carriere 

 Traite Conif. ed. II. 695. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 495. Gordon, Pinet. ed. 

 II. 106. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 209. 



Huon Pine of Tasmania. 



The Huon Pine, the most valuable timber tree of Tasmania, is. 

 restricted to the south-west part of the island. It was formerly 

 abundant arotind Macquarie Harbour and along the Huon river, but 

 in consequence of the continuous demand for its timber, especially 



