CHAPTER XXXVII. 

 NEW ZEALAND TREES. 



THE KAURIE, OR COWDIE PINE (Dammar a Australis), 



Is a native of and is found only in New Zealand. It is 

 most plentiful about the middle part of the northern 

 island, where there are very extensive forests of it, but it 

 is only moderately abundant a little farther south, and 

 towards Wellington, and in the middle island, it is only 

 sparingly met with. 



It is a tall and very handsome tree, with a slightly 

 tapering stem, and reaches, in sheltered situations, a 

 height of 100 to 140 feet, with a circumference of from 

 9 to 1 5 feet ; and even much larger specimens are occa- 

 sionally met with. At Wangaroa, a little to the north- 

 ward of the Bay of Islands, I measured one that was 

 48 feet in circumference at 3 feet from the ground. It 

 was a well-grown, healthy-looking tree, with a heavy 

 cluster of branches thrown out at about 66 feet from the 

 base, and these, spreading obliquely, covered a large 

 space. Many others approximating in dimensions to 

 this magnificent specimen were seen, but the largest 

 that I ever met with was one standing near to Mercury 

 Bay, which measured 80 feet to the branches, and 72 feet 

 in circumference. 



