306 Transactions.— Botany. 



and good after being sixteen years in use. Some of the telegraph poles of 

 the first line erected in the Waimakariri Country were furnished by this 

 species ; those fixed in dry soils perished in four or five years, while those 

 driven in swamps remained sound for a much longer period. Similar 

 results have been obtained with fencing posts furnished by mountain beech. 



Fagus blairii, n. s. 



Blair's Beech. 



(Vide ante, p. 297. PI. xvi.) 



Hitherto this species has been confused with the mountain beech, 

 although its differential characters are easily recognized. It has been 

 observed in the valley of the Dart and other places about Lake Wakatipu, 

 and by the Little Grey River at elevations between 1,000 and 2,000 feet ; 

 also I believe on the Five Bivers Plain. 



Usually it attains rather larger dimensions than mountain beech, being 

 from 40 to 60 feet high : it is easily distinguished from that species by the 

 ovate apiculate leaves clothed with appressed fulvous tomentum beneath in 

 the mature state. 



The habit and spray of this species more closely approaches F. sylvatica 

 of Europe than any other New Zealand species. 



At present nothing is known as to the durability of the timber, which in 

 appearance resembles that of mountain beech. 



