550 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



green above ; pale-green beneath ; ovate or ovate-lanceolate ; 2 to 3 inches long on 

 barren branchlets, about 1 inch long on flowering shoots ; unequally cuneate at the 

 base, acuminate at the apex, finely and sharply serrate ; lateral nerves 8 to 1 2 pairs, 

 prominent on the upper surface ; petioles very short, pubescent. Flowers unknown. 

 Fruit : involucre about f inch long, four-lobed ; lobes lanceolate, acute with pubes- 

 cent scales terminating in glandular processes ; nuts three, two three-winged, the 

 other two-winged. 



This tree was discovered by Mr. C. Moore, Curator of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Sydney, in New South Wales, and is the only southern beech occurring in a sub- 

 tropical region. It forms dense forests at the head of Bellinger River and Bealsdown 

 Creek, at about 4000 feet altitude ; and a few trees have also been seen near the 

 source of the Macleay River. 



It was introduced into cultivation at Kew about fifteen years ago, and there is 

 a small tree now growing there in the Temperate House. The only specimen 

 living in the open air, so far as we know, is growing in the garden of Mr. Thomas 

 Acton at Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow. It was 18 feet high in 1906, and had bark 

 rescmhVing that of Prunus aviupz. (A. H.) 



NOTHOFAGUS CUNNINGHAMI 



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



Fagus Cunninghami, J. D. Hooker, Journ. Bot. ii. 152, t. 7 (1840), and Flora Tasmanim, i. 346 



(i860); F. V. Mueller, Fragm. Phyt. Austral, v. no (1865); Bentham, Flora Australiensis, 



vi. 210 (1873); Rodway, Tasmanian Flora, 182 (1903). 



An evergreen tree, said to attain in Tasmania 200 feet in height and 40 feet 

 in girth. Bark, as seen in cultivated trees, roughened by small scales and fissuring 

 longitudinally. Young branchlets densely and minutely pubescent. Buds conical, 

 sharp-pointed and curved at the apex, shining, brown. Leaves (Plate 202, Fig. 5) 

 persistent for two or three years, distichous and crowded on the branchlets, coriaceous, 

 about |- inch in length ; broadly ovate, deltoid or rhombic ; cuneate or cordate at 

 the base, acute at the apex ; unequally crenate in margin ; both surfaces glabrous, 

 veins inconspicuous and scarcely prominent beneath ; petioles short, pubescent. 

 Male flowers solitary ; stamens eight. Fruit : involucre \ inch long, four-lobed, 

 each lobe with five or six rows of dorsal transverse scales, split up into gland-tipped 

 processes ; nuts usually three, two lateral triquetrous and three-winged, the other 

 flattened and two-winged. 



This species is very common in Tasmania, where it is known as the " Tasmanian 

 myrtle," and forms a large proportion of the forests in the mountainous and western 

 humid districts. It ascends to 4000 feet, becoming at this elevation a mere shrub, 

 a few feet in height. It also occurs on the mainland of Australia, in Victoria, in a 

 few scattered localities, being most common according to F. v. Mueller on the Baw- 

 baw mountains, and less common at Dandenong, Mount Juliet, Wilson's Promontory, 



