548 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



often forming the timber line, when it becomes a mere bush. The wood, though of 

 no great size, is used for telegraph-poles, fencing-posts, railway sleepers, and wharf- 

 piles, the heartwood being very durable in situations where it is exposed to alter- 

 nations of dryness and moisture. 



N. cliffortioides is extremely rare in cultivation. There are two specimens at 

 Enys, Cornwall, which, according to Mr. John D. Enys, were 35 feet and 28^ feet 

 high respectively in 1905; but when Elwes saw them in that year they were very 

 slender and not thriving. These trees are semi-deciduous, most of the leaves, after 

 turning brilliant red in autumn, falling off during winter ; whereas, in New Zealand, 

 the foliage is strictly evergreen. Another tree is growing at Messrs. Veitch's nursery 

 at Coombe Wood, where it stands out of doors without any protection. It is very 

 slow, however, in growth, and is only about 12 feet in height. (A. H.) 



NOTHOFAGUS MENZIESII 



Nothofagus Menziesii, Oerstedt, Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift. V. ix. 355 (1873). 



Fagus Menziesii, J. D. Hooker, Icon. Plant, t. 652 (1844), and Flora New Zealand, i. 229 (1854); 



Kirk, Forest Flora New Zealand, 175, t. 89 (1889); Cheeseman, New Zealartd Flora, 640 



(1906). 



An evergreen tree, attaining in New Zealand 100 feet in height and 15 to 25 

 feet in girth. Bark silvery-white, resembling that of the common English birch. 

 Young branchlets covered with dense erect brown pubescence. Leaves (Plate 202, 

 Fig. 9) persistent for two or three years, distichous on the branchlets, about \ inch 

 long, coriaceous, deltoid, ovate or rhombic ; cuneate at the base, obtuse at the apex ; 

 glabrous ; upper surface dark-green, shining ; lower surface pale-green, with usually 

 two (occasionally only one or none) small pits fringed with brownish hairs near the 

 base of the midrib ; lateral veins about three pairs ; margin irregularly and doubly 

 crenate ; petioles short, pubescent. Male flowers solitary ; calyx four- to six-lobed ; 

 stamens six to twelve. Fruit : involucre ^ to ^ inch long, cleft into four narrow 

 lobes, each with five transverse scales, cut to the base into recurved linear gland- 

 tipped processes ; nuts three, one two-winged, two three-winged, the wings produced 

 upwards into sharp points. 



This species, which is known in New Zealand as the "silver birch" or "red 

 birch," is common in the mountain forests of both the North and South Islands, 

 ascending from sea-level to 3500 feet. The wood is dark-red, strong, and compact, 

 and being easily worked, is suitable for making furniture. 



A small tree of this species is growing in the Temperate House at Kew ; and 

 we are not aware that it has ever been tried in the open air. The tree has handsome 

 foliage, and should be hardy in Cornwall and the south of Ireland. (A. H.) 



