VITEX LITTORALIS, A. Cunningham. 
THE PURIRI. 
OrDER—VERBENACE-®©. 
(Plate CV.) 
? 
Tue puriri is sometimes termed ‘ kauere;’’ the former is however the name 
most generally in use. On account of the strength of its timber it is sometimes 
termed by settlers ‘‘ New Zealand oak,” but it would be far more correct to 
name it ‘‘ New Zealand teak.” 
It forms a noble tree, from 4oft. to 6oft. high, with a trunk from 2ft. to 5ft. 
in diameter, clothed with thin, smooth, whitish- or yellowish-brown bark. The 
trunk may be lone and straight, with but few small branches, or short when the 
branches are spreading, and usually of large diameter. The plant is usually 
smooth in all its parts, although a few weak hairs may be occasionally found on 
the young leaves: the leaves are opposite, composed of from three to five stalked 
leaflets springing from the tip of a stout stalk 31n. or 4in, long, and arranged like 
the digits of the hand; they are from 2in. to 5in. long, and from tin, to nearly 
3in. wide, narrowed to a point, with the margins quite entire, and turned 
upwards from the mid-rib: the leaves are of a deep green, smooth, and almost 
shining: the two lateral leaflets are often diminutive. The flowers are produced 
in sreat abundance, and arranged in panicles springing from the axils of the 
leaves: each flower is carried on a pedicel ‘fin. to tin, long, the flower being 
about tin, long, and irregular in shape. The calyx is cup-shaped, with five 
minute teeth; and the dull-red corolla is two-lipped, the upper lip being entire 
and rounded, while the lower lip is bent downwards and deeply divided into three 
spreading lobes. The staméns are in two pairs, springing from the base of the 
corolla, and are curved downwards; the ovary is very small, and the style is 
divided into two short arms: the fruit is a red drupe, containing a club-shaped 
nut, rounded on the top and of bony hardness: it is four-celled, each cell con- 
taining a single seed, but as a rule not more than one or two are perfect. 
The growing tree is attacked by the larvae of the puriri-moth, which bore 
longitudinal galleries sometimes #in. in diameter, but the durability of the timber 
is not affected, and the timber is not attacked when worked up. 
PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The wood of the puriri is of a dark-brown colour, excessively hard, dense, 
and heavy, of great strength and durability, but as a rule difficult to work on 
account of the interlaced and crossed arrangement of the fibres. It is the 
strongest and most durable of all the New Zealand timbers: it is to be regretted 
that its streneth has not been properly determined. 
It is extensively used for house-blocks, piles, railway-sleepers, culverts, 
bridges, and constructive works generally whenever it can be obtained; also for 
ships’ blocks, machine-beds and bearings, and for purposes requiring great 
streneth and durability. Itis the best timber in the colony for fence-posts, &c. 
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