166 Transactions.—Miscellaneoiis. 
The growing timber is remarkably free from heart-shakes and other 
defects of a similar kind. Trees that have stood long after reaching 
maturity occasionally show a small core of decayed wood in the centre ; 
but itis so small, and occurs so seldom, that it can scarcely be called a 
defect. 
It is difficult to determine the proportion of sap-wood in silver birch ; 
young trees are of a uniform colour and texture from the pith to the bark, 
and the wood gets gradually darker and harder towards the centre in old 
trees, so that a sharp line of distinction between heart and sap cannot be 
struck ; perhaps three and a half inches of sap-wood on a two feet tree will 
be a fair average. The colour of young timber is a pinkish-white, with 
occasional reddish streaks and knot-like spots. The heart in old trees is 
deep pink or light red, verging towards the outside into the same tints as 
the young wood ; both kinds have a peculiar silvery lustre—this is easily 
recognized when once known. The wood of silver birch is even grained, 
soft, flexible, and tough, and not given to excessive shrinkage or warping ;— 
perhaps there is no other timber in New Zealand so suitable for internal 
joiner-work and mouldings ; it is also admirably adapted for tubs and other 
light coopers’ work, and should answer for making patterns. Altogether, 
this is one of the most useful soft woods in Otago. 
Silver birch timber is not durable in any situation where exposed to 
damp, or alternations from wet to dry ; in this respect it is about on a par 
with white pine. I show a section of a tree rotten quite through after lying 
felled for four years in the West Taieri Bush, and a similar result was 
obtained under the same conditions in twelve months on Inch Clutha ; 
further, a tree that had been cut, but left leaning against another, was com- 
pletely worm-eaten in that time. I have had similar evidence from the 
Blue Mountains, and we have negative proof in the absence of old trunks 
in the forest ; so silver birch must be set down as a perishable timber. 
No. 10. Red Bireh—Fagus fusca. With the single exception of kauri, 
this is the largest member of the vegetable kingdom in New Zealand. It is 
the chief occupant of the interior and west coast forests of Otago, and occa- 
sionally descends in small patches and individual trees to sea level on the 
east coast. It affects light soil on shingly plains or the mountain side, and 
grows in open bush with little undergrowth. The other two kinds of birches 
occur in the same forest, which seldom contains any other timber in large 
quantities. Mr. M‘Arthur estimates that 80 per cent. of the trees in the 
Burrwood Forest are red birch. 
The tree grows to a height of from eighty to one hundred feet, with a 
trunk, free of large branches, fifty to eighty feet long, and three to eight 
feet diameter; occasionally, however, it attains the enormous diameter of 
