LIBOCEDRUS DONTANA, Endlicher. 
THE KAWAKA. 
OrRDER—CONIFERS. 
TRIBE—CUPRESSINEAS. 
(Plates LXXXII. and LXXXII/a. im part.) 
Mr. Coienso informs me that this fine tree is termed kawaka and kaikawaka by 
the Maoris: it is somewhat unfortunate that the latter name is generally applied 
to the next species, Libocedrus Bidwilli, by surveyors and bushmen, especially 
in the central and southern parts of the North Island. It is often termed ‘‘ the 
New Zealand arbor-vite ’’ by the settlers. 
It was originally discovered by Robert Cunningham at the Bay of Islands, 
and received the name of Dacrydium plumosum, the fruit being unknown at the 
time. Sir William Hooker described it under the name of Thuja Doniana, but 
Endlicher referred it to his genus Libocedrus. It is a noble tree, with a straight 
naked trunk, sometimes tooft. high, and from 2ft. to 5ft. in diameter: it may be 
distinguished from all other pines in the northern districts by the old bark falling 
away in long thin ribbons, somewhat like that of the manuka (Leptospermum 
scoparium), but the flakes are much longer and broader, being frequently 51n. or 
6in. wide. The branches are few, but are usually larger and more spreading than 
in the next species, although retaining a conical outline. In the young state 
the plant is remarkably handsome: the branchlets, being much flattened and 
crowded, have a plumose appearance, which led to its receiving the trivial name 
‘blumosun,’’ although it was then supposed to be a Dacrydium. ‘The leaves 
vary in form and arrangement at different stages of growth: in very young 
plants they are uniform, about 4in. long, very narrow-linear and spreading; but 
in older states they are of two forms, arranged in four rows, the lateral rows 
consisting of flattened acute leaves, about #in. long, attached by broad bases : 
the upper and lower rows consist of minute rhomboid acute leaves, about s,in. 
in length, inserted at right angles to the lateral leaves. In the mature state the 
branchlets are less flattened, but are not obviously four-sided, as in the next 
species: the leaves are still in four rows, and differ but slightly in shape, although 
the lateral leaves are larger than the others, about ,;in. long, keeled at the 
back, the base of each being overlapped by the tip of the leaf below it; the 
smaller leaves are rhomboid, about »,in. long, and are also keeled. 
The male and female flowers form short catkins at the tips of branchlets; 
their structure will be described under the next species. The fruit is a small 
woody cone, consisting of four woody scales, each with a curved spine at the 
back; seeds, two, or, rarely, four, each with a membranous wing. 
This species differs from L. Bidwilli in the larger size of all its parts, in the 
mature branchlets being compressed but never tetragonous, and especially in 
the larger seeds with shorter, broader wings. 
40) 
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