226 On Timber Trees of New Zealand. 



and shrinks a good deal both hiterally and endwise. It is 

 almost the only wood used by the natives for the palisading 

 of their pahs, and for their canoes, on account of its dura- 

 bility. I have seen stakes of an old pah, which had been by 

 all accounts about twenty years in the ground, and they were 

 sound. When worm-eaten it is said to be most durable. 

 It is difficult to paint, on account of a greasy matter in it, 

 which is probably the cause of its durability. It is not 

 useful in carpentry, on account of its want of strength, 

 except for sleepers and boards; but it is useful in joinery 

 on account of its easy working. Totara splits easily into 

 shingles and laths. 



It grows all over New Zealand, both on flat and hilly 

 ground, but is more luxuriant on moist flats. It averages 

 about 8 feet in diameter and 70 feet in height. It is not so 

 plentiful as white pine, except in particular localities. Logs 

 of it have been found 5000 feet above the sea lying on the 

 ground, and also below the level of high water buried 6 feet 

 in the clay. Its leaf is small, narrow and pointed, about 

 |-inch long and |-inch broad. The tree grows to a bush 

 at the top : it bears a small orange berry with a black seed 

 on the top of it and ripens in June, — the bark splits ofi" in 

 large flakes. The specimen was got from a large tree in the 

 flat valley of the Hutt, probably about 200 feet above the 

 sea, and was cut in October, 1849. 



{Note hy W. Swainson, Esq., F.R.S., do. — The Totara 

 is the most valuable wood in New Zealand for building, 

 fencing, and furniture ; for it is not affected by wet, which 

 rather preserves than injures it. I have seen large trunks 

 that have remained buried in swamps for perhaps two cen- 

 turies as sound and entire as ever. I believe there are 

 three species : the red-w^ooded sort is superseded in the 

 barren clay districts by one with a pale yellow wood ; and a 

 third is found on the hills, high up the Hutt Valley, which 



