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METROSIDEROS POLYMORPHA, Forster. 
aE SMALL-LEAVED POHUTUKAWA. 
OrpER—MYRTACE. 
(Plate CXIX.) 
Tuts handsome tree bears considerable resemblance to the pohutukawa, but the 
branchlets are less robust, and the leaves and flowers are much smaller, the 
leaves being more rounded. It is the only species of Metrosideros in the New 
Zealand flora which is not endemic. It forms a tree of similar dimensions 
to the pohutukawa, and varies to a great extent in the form of the leaves and 
the extent to which the leaves and branches are clothed with hairs: the 
branchlets are more or less pubescent, and the leaves are arranged in four rows ; 
they are borne on short leaf-stalks, and are from tin. to r}in. in length, of thick 
texture, and are usually rounded at the tips; as a rule they are clothed with 
white appressed hairs beneath. The flowers are arranged in small panicles or 
cymes, which are borne in the axils of the leaves or on the tips of the branchlets, 
and vary from rin. to thin. in breadth: the flowers may be few or many, arranged 
in pairs or threes on short stout pedicels, which are clothed with dense snow- 
white hairs. The calyx is also covered with white woolly hairs, except the 
minute teeth, which are green. The general structure of the flowers and fruit is 
similar to that of the pohutukawa, but the stamens are only from $in. to #in. in 
length and very slender, and the upper portion of the ovary is silky. 
PROPERTIES AND UsEs. 
The wood of Metrosideros polymorpha resembles that of the pohutukawa, and 
may be applied to the same uses. Owing to its being restricted to the outlying 
northern islands of the colony it has not been utilised. 
In view of the increasing scarcity of pohutukawa in the North Island it 
would be far wiser to conserve the small-leaved pohutukawa of the Kermadec 
Islands than to allow it to be destroyed merely to facilitate settlement, which 
must of necessity be extremely restricted. Nearly two hundred persons are 
now engaged in ship- and boat-building, of whom fully three-fourths are employed 
in the Auckland District, where alone pohutukawa is to be procured. 
During the year 1885, 403 boats and 53 vessels of from 50 tons to 200 tons 
burden were built in the colony; the total value of material and labour alone 
being estimated at £47,116, the cost of the labour being £25,645. By far the 
greater portion of this work was performed in the Auckland District, the number 
constructed there being 316 boats and 31 vessels, the total value of which is 
estimated at £30,613 for labour and material, as against 87 boats and 22 vessels 
constructed in all other parts of the colony, and valued at £16,503. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 
Metrosideros polymorpha is found in New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, and 
other Polynesian islands to the Sandwich Islands. It is found on Lord Howe’s 
61 
