74 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



The wood is very suitable for the manufacture of paper and 

 can be used for that purpose. The tree grows chiefly in 

 swampy districts and in both islands. 



Genus Dacrydium. 



Shrubs or trees, found only in New Zealand, Tasmania, the Malay 

 Archipelago, and the islands of the Pacific. Leaves narrow and scale-like. Male 

 and female flowers on separate trees. Fruit, a small nut enclosed in a fleshy 

 cup. (Name from the Greek for a tear, in allusion to the weeping habit of some 

 of the species). 7 sp. 



Dacrydium cupressinum (The Eimu or Bed Pine.) 



This pine is one of the most beautiful objects in the New 

 Zealand bush. Its pale-green, drooping branches differ from 

 those of any other forest tree. " The leaves are only small 

 prickles, running up a long stem, from which branch out other 

 small stems whose united weight causes the main stem to hang 

 like the branches of the weeping willow." The whole tree, 

 when young, has the appearance of a lycopodium. Spruce- 

 beer was made from the young branches by Captain Cook, and 

 proved an excellent remedy for the scurvy. The seed is 

 curious, consisting of a nut placed in a cup like that of an 

 acorn. This fruit is tiny, but beautiful, the nut being of a 

 blue-black and the cup red The male flowers are produced in 

 inconspicuous green catkins at the end of erect branchlets. 

 The female are solitary, at the tip of curved branchlets, and 

 the nut is about one-eighth of an inch long. Prickles such as 

 those on the leaves run spirally round the trunk. The timber 

 is of a red or yellow colour, and beautifully marked. It 

 is used to great advantage in dadoes, panels, and for ceilings. 

 The Taranaki rimu is especially straight in the grain and 

 very resinous. It is much used for bridge-building in that 

 district. The heart- wood is extremely resinous, and was made 

 into torches by the natives. It was split into shreds and tied 

 into bundles, and only needed the ashes to be occasionally 

 knocked off to burn with a bright, steady blaze. The rimu 



