180 FAGUS FUSCA. 
transverse plates, the upper margins of which may be entire or more or less 
toothed: the cup usually contains four nuts, one being often distorted and 
abortive; the others are three-sided, with a flat membranous wing produced from 
each angle. | 
In-a strongly-marked variety, which I have named dubia, the veins are not 
prominent, the texture is rather thicker, and the leaf is narrow, with serratures 
restricted to the upper portion: at first sight it makes a closer approach to 
F.. Solandri than to F. fusca. 
PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The wood of the tooth-leaved beech is red, straight, even, and compact in 
the grain, of great strength and toughness, and of great durability. It is of the 
highest value for railway-sleepers and piles, for wharves and bridges, as well as 
for house-blocks, fence-posts and rails, mine-props, caps and struts, &c. It is 
well suited for the framing, flooring-joists, and weather-boarding of houses, &c.: 
as it is easily worked 1t might be used for joiners’ work. Mr. Blair mentions 
fences constructed of red-birch that have lasted from thirteen to fifteen years: 
I have, however, seen fences erected from twenty to twenty-four years which are 
still in good condition, and am satisfied that fences constructed of this timber 
would last forty years, if only good timber be used, and the posts proportioned to 
the weight of the rails—a point often neglected. 
Well-grown trees split with the greatest ease, and with very little waste. I 
have seen trunks from 6oft. to 7oft. long split without a foot of waste, and am 
convinced that if required they could be split for their entire length without | 
cross-cutting. 
There can be no question as to the durability of this timber, but there 
appears some reason to think that its strength has been over-estimated. 
In seven experiments to test the strength of this timber, as recorded by — 
Balfour, the mean breaking weight was 202°5lb.: the maximum 25olb., and the 
minimum 122°5lb. | 
Mr. Blair records, as the results of ninety-nine tests, a mean breaking weight 
of 156°86lb., the maximum being 262°5lb., and the minimum 1o05lb. Forty of 
Mr. Blair’s specimens were obtained from the west coast of the South Island, 
the others from the interior of Otago. The mean of both was almost identical, 
156‘91lb. and 156°83]b., but the maximum of the west-coast specimens was only 
186lb., while that of the Otago specimens was 262°5lb. On the other hand the 
extreme minimum, 105lb., was shown by Otago. specimens.* 
The experiments by Mr. Blair confirm those by Balfour in showing the 
greater strength of specimens obtained from mountain localities. Balfour gives 
the mean of Wakatipu specimens as 232lb.; Blair, 192°79lb. There can be no 
doubt that specimens grown at elevations between 1,o0o0ft. and 2,500ft. will be 
stronger and more durable than timber grown at low levels or in exceptionally 
moist districts. Although Mr. Blair’s experiments show that the strength of 
tooth-leaved beech has been over-estimated by Balfour, they cannot at present 
be accepted as conclusive with regard to the extent of the error, which as stated 
is over 23 percent. Mr. Blair’s experiments were made with specimens obtained 
exclusively from the South Island, and nearly one-half from low levels. There 
is good reason for believing that if a series of specimens could be tested from 
mountain localities in Nelson, Wellington, and Hawke’s Bay the discrepancy 
would be reduced nearly one-half: even if this should not be the case fagus 
fusca must still be considered a timber of the highest value. 
* Blair: Building Materials of Otago, p. 214. 
OO — — 
