116 DYSOXYLUM SPECTABILE, 
PROPERTIES AND USEs. 
The wood is light, but usually straight and even in the grain, rather soft, 
strong, and fairly durable ; it is of a pale-red colour when seasoned. 
It is adapted to the purposes of the cabinetmaker, especially where heayy. 
timbers are ineligible : although usually plain and déstitute of figure, waved and 
curled specimens of great beauty are frequently met with. | 
Of late years it has come largely into demand for wire-fence posts in loose 
sand: in situations of this kind it is the most durable of all New Zealand 
timbers, being greatly superior to totara. 
The leaves are bitter and tonic: an infusion is occasionally used by bush- 
men as a stomachic. 
The kohekohe is a valuable tree for ornamental planting. 
DIsTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS. 
Dysoxylum as now constituted contains about thirty species, chiefly natives 
of tropical Asia: five species are found in Australia, and one in New Zealand, 
DiIsTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 
Dysoxylum spectabile is distributed throughout the North Island, being most 
plentiful and attaining its largest dimensions on good soils, although not un- 
common on stiff clays. It is sometimes found in situations where it is washed 
by the sea-spray. It is rare in the South Island, but occurs in several places in 
the Marlborough District ; also in Croixelles Harbour, and on D’Uryille Island, 
in the Nelson District. 
It ascends from the sea-level to nearly 3,o0o0ft. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Dysoxylum spectabile, Hook. f. 
| ‘‘ Tcones Plantarum,”’ tt. 616, 617. 
A round-headed evergreen tree, 20ft. to 50ft. high, trunk 1ft. to 3ft. in dia- 
meter, bark pale, branches stout. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, gin. to 
18in. long; leaflets in three or four pairs, petioled, 3in. to 7in. long, oblong or 
oblong-ovate, entire, slightly oblique at the base, sometimes narrowed into the 
petiole. Flowers in pendulous panicles, given off from naked parts of the trunk 
and branches, rarely axillary, perfect, shortly pedicelled. Calyx with five lobes, 
ciliated, inferior; petals, five, linear, spreading, obtuse; stamens, eight or ten, 
the filaments forming a tube longitudinally grooved, surrounding the pistil ; 
anthers, eight or ten, nearly sessile, slightly exserted ; disc forming a fluted cup 
around the ovary; ovary three- or four-celled, silky, ovules two in each cell; 
style rather longer than the staminal tube; stigma capitate, with a membranous 
cup springing from its base. Fruit, a pendulous capsule, globose or pyriform, 
three- or four-celled ; each cell with two seeds, without endosperm, enveloped 
in a scarlet aril. 
EXPLANATION OF Pirates LXIV. anp LXV. 
LXIV. Dysoxylum spectabile, Hook. f. Foliage reduced. — 
LXV. Dysoxylum spectabile, Hook. f. Flowering and fruiting panicles, 
natural size. 1’. Flower-buds. 1. Flower. 2. Calyx. 3. Flower with calyx 
and petals removed. 4. Staminal tube laid open. 5. Pistil with cup at base. 
6. Stamen. 7. Style and stigma. 8. Transverse section of ovary. 9- Pollen- 
erains. 2’, Diagram to show the position of seeds. 3’. Fruit in the first stage of 
dehiscence. 4’, Fruit with the upper portion of the pericarp removed. 5). Two 
seeds enclosed in an aril. 6’. Seed. 7’. Longitudinal section of a seed: 
8’, Germinating seed. 
