148 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



does not warp or split, is easily worked and takes a fine polish. It 

 is also durable as a wood for boats. The tree is easily raised from 

 seeds or cuttings, and is of quick growth. The seeds are produced 

 copiously. The supply of its wood has fallen short of the demand 

 in India. Colonel Campbell- Walker states, that in the Punjab 

 artificial rearing of Sissoo is remunerative at only 15 inches annual 

 rainfall, with great heat in summer and occasional sharp frosts in 

 winter ; but irrigation is resorted to at an annual expense there of 

 four shillings per acre. Sterile land is by the Sissoo-planting 

 greatly ameliorated. 



Dammara alba, Eumph. (D. orientalis, Lambert; Agathis loranthifolia, 

 Salisbury.) 



Agath-Dammar-Pine. Indian Archipelagus and mainland. A 

 splendid tree, up to 100 feet high, with a stem to 8 feet in diameter, 

 straight and branchless for two-thirds in length. It is of great 

 importance 011 account of its yield of the transparent Dammar- 

 resin, extensively used for varnish. 



Dammara Australia, Lambert.* (Agathis australis, Salisbury.) 



Kauri-Pine. North-Island of New Zealand. This magnificent 

 tree measures, under favorable circumstances, 180 feet in height 

 and exceptionally 17 feet in diameter of stem ; the estimated but 

 perhaps overrated age of such a tree being 700 to 800 years. It 

 furnishes an excellent, remarkably durable timber, straight-grained, 

 and much in use for masts, boats, superior furniture, casks, rims of 

 ^ sieves, and is particularly sought for decks of ships, lasting for the 

 latter purpose twice as long as the deal of many other pines. It is 

 also available for railway brake-blocks and for carriages, and 

 regarded as one of the most durable among timbers of the Conifera^. 

 Braces, stringers and tie-beams of wharves remained, according to 

 Professor Kirk, for very many years in good order under much 

 traffic. In bridge-building also the Kauri-timber gave excellent 

 results ; it can likewise be ased advantageously for the sounding- 

 boards of pianofortes. Kauri-wood is also used for light handles of 

 many implements and for various instruments, including stethos- 

 copes, for wool-presses, the body-work of Avaggons, butter-casks, 

 brewers' vats ; further, in shipbuilding for bulwarks, and also for 

 the sides of boats. In strength it is considerably superior to Baltic 

 Deal. Kauri ought to be extensively introduced into our denser 

 forests. Auckland alone exports about 100,000 worth of Kauri - 

 timber annually. It is easily worked, and takes a high polish. 

 This tree yields besides the Kauri-resin of commerce, which is also 

 largely obtained from under the stems. The greatest part is 

 gathered by the Maoris in localities formerly covered with Kauri - 

 forests ; pieces weighing a ton have been found in such places. The 

 value of this resin, as exported from New Zealand in 1883, was 

 359,936, it 1885 it was 299,762, in 1888, 380,933, the London 



