TREES 
46 
soil. It produces a fine red berry, the principal 
and most nourishing food of the wood-pigeon, 
during the season. The wood is smooth, close- 
grained, and dark, for a pine ; splits freely, and 
has a large long grain, similar to that of the 
mahogany. The smallness of the dimensions of 
this tree subtracts much from its utility as tim- 
ber, to which name, perhaps, it can scarcely be 
said to make any pretensions. The leaf is like 
that of the fir-tree; and its bark is clear and 
smooth, as the bark of the ash. For durability, 
as a species of the Pine, it far exceeds any other ; 
and would be much sought after and preferred, 
were it not for the scantiness of its circumference, 
Towai — a tree of the Podocarpus species, with 
a dark-brown bark, and a leaf similar to, and 
about the size of, the moss-rose. It grows from 
twenty to thirty feet high, without a branch, and 
then becomes thickly foliated. Its bark is smooth, 
and similar to that of the ash. It produces a 
heavy, close-grained, red wood ; answering ail 
the purposes of the New South-Wales cedar, but 
much more durable and weighty. It grows in all 
the small forests, where there is no Kauri, and 
where the soil is light and vegetable in its nature. 
This tree is also but of small dimensions ; and is, 
consequently, generally allowed to remain an 
undisturbed occupier of its native woods. 
Pohutukaua (Callistemon ellipticus ) — This is a 
tree of remarkably robust habits, and diffuse irre- 
gular growth ; and is found on the rocky shores 
