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EUGENIA MAIRBS, A. Cunningham. 
THE MAIRE-TAWHAKE. 
OrpErR—MYRTACE. 
(Plate CXXIL.) 
Tue maire-tawhake forms a handsome conical tree with slender twigs, which 
carry a profusion of large white myrtle-like flowers, succeeded by large red fruits, 
presenting a bright attractive appearance in either state: it is most frequently 
found in boggy woods or on the margins of swamps. | 
It is from 2o0ft. to upwards of 5oft. in height, with a trunk from ft. to 2ft. in 
diameter, clothed with smooth white bark: the branches are somewhat angular, 
and, with the leaves, are perfectly smooth. The leaves are opposite, from 1in. to 
ain. long, and carried on slender leaf-stalks; they are of thin texture; the margins 
are entire or with distant obscure teeth: the blades are narrowed at the base 
and pointed at the apex. | 
The flowers are white, and are usually arranged in flat-topped panicles at 
the tips of the branches; the panicles are many-flowered, and vary from jin. to 
idin. in width: the flower closely resembles that of a myrtle in structure, and 
is carried on a slender pedicel, which is jointed at its base. They may be 
perfect, or the pistil may be abortive, or, more rarely, the stamens. During 
expansion the petals frequently adhere to the stamens, and are torn out of 
their places as the stamens become erect: this is especially the case in damp 
weather. 
The calyx is broadly cup-shaped, with five minute lobes, but is very shallow, 
and adherent with the ovary: the petals are small, rounded at the tips: the 
stamens are very numerous, and the ovary is two-celled, with several ovules in 
each cell; but as it ripens into fruit one cell becomes obliterated, and only a 
single ovule matures into a seed. The fruit is red, somewhat uneven and 
irregular in shape, with a pulpy outer layer, and is crowned with the remains of 
the calyx: it contains a single seed. 
The flowers, as already stated, are very similar to those of. the myrtle in 
structure; but the flowers of New Zealand myrtles are always solitary, and the 
fruit contains several seeds: the flowers of the Eugenia are arranged in panicles, 
and the fruit is one-seeded. 
PRoperRTIES AND UsEs. 
The maire-tawhake affords a valuable timber, very straight and even in the 
erain, hard, dense, heavy, and of great strength and durability. Itis of a whitish 
or light-brown colour, and, although rarely figured, it is suitable for many pur- 
poses of the cabinetmaker, and is highly valued for mooring-posts, jetty-piles, 
jetties, breastworks, fence-posts, and other purposes which require combined 
streneth and durability. Its specific gravity varies from “618 to *943, and its 
weight per cubic foot from 38°54lb. to 6olb. The breaking weight of three 
sound Wellington specimens ranged from 223lb. to 225lb., and of six specimens 
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