49 PODOCARPUS DACRYDIOIDES. 
diameter, with the shining black nut partly imbedded at its apex, and one or | 
more of the abortive ovules much enlarged somewhat below it. | 
When laden with its crimson fruits the tree presents a most attractive 
appearance if growing in an open situation. 
The male and female flowers are produced in vast profusion on separate 
trees: the flowers are developed in October and November, and the fruit requires 
nearly a year to arrive at maturity. 
| 
PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The wood is usually white, but sometimes it assumes a pale-yellow tint; it 
is firm, compact, tough, strong, straight in the grain, and of fairly even texture, 
but is not durable when in contact with the ground. Its specific gravity varies 
from ‘459 to °557.* Mr. Blair states the weight of two specimens in the green 
state at 38:g21lb. and 43°8g9glb. respectively per cubic foot; when seasoned, | 
28°036lb. and 29°505lb.t Balfour gives as the mean weight of four specimens 
from Wellington 31°54lb., and of six specimens from Banks Peninsula 2g:11Ib. 
per cubic foot.* These figures may be accepted as approximately correct for 
seasoned timber, but further experiments are required to determine the weight 
in the green state. Many logs have the same specific gravity as water, and will 
only float when fully immersed; others will not float at all, and are termed 
‘““sinkers’’ by the bushmen. Where flotation is employed to convey the timber 
to the sawmill, casks are attached to logs of this kind to afford some degree of 
buoyancy. The result of four experiments by Mr. Blair shows that a weight of 
from 308Ib. to 358lb. is required to break pieces 2ft. long and rin. square, sup- 
ported at both ends and loaded in the middle.t According to Balfour, the 
breaking weight for pieces 121n. long and lin. square, supported at one end and 
loaded at the other, ranges from golb. to 155]b. 
The alburnum or sapwood in kahikatea is large in proportion to the heart, 
and in many cases is not well defined: it is evident that a lengthened period is 
required for the complete maturation of the timber after the tree has attained 
its maximum growth, In trees 3ft. in diameter the heart is sometimes less than 
6in.; even in mature trees the sapwood often equals or exceeds the heart. Logs 
in which the sapwood is less than one-fourth of the whole diameter are decidedly 
rare. As a general rule kahikatea logs are remarkably sound, ring-shakes are 
extremely rare, and heart-shakes are very small; consequently the waste in con- 
version is much less than in rimu. 
The kahikatea rarely produces large branches, and, as the trunks are fre- 
quently of great length, sometimes exceeding tooft. when felled, perfectly sound 
straight logs can be obtained of any length required. In many logs both heart 
and sap are white, the former being only distinguished by its greater hardness 
and density; but usually the heartwood is of a yellowish-brown. Trees are 
often met with which produce a yellowish timber with a stouter grain than usual, 
and of more durable quality when exposed. When grown in dry situations it 1s 
generally considered more durable than when grown in swamps; but in Marl- 
borough the sawmillers contend that the swamp timber lasts longer than that 
grown on the hills. 
While readily admitting that kahikatea is greatly inferior to kauri, totara, 
and matai in durability, I am fully convinced that its actual durability is much 
ereater than is generally supposed. At the Turua Sawmills, on the River 
Thames, where kahikatea is the only timber converted, Mr. J. L. Bagnall drew 
my attention to several cottages erected in 1868, in which kahikatea was exclu- 
* Balfour's Experiments, + Blair: Building Materials of Otago, p. 224. t Ibid., p, 225. 
