314 FAGACEAE. [NV othofagus. 
every kind of combination imaginable between the essential characteristics 
of the species concerned—+.e., shape and size of leaf; texture of leaf ; 
colour; toothing of margin ; venation ; tomentum ; leat base; leaf- apex. 
(4.) The N. Menziesii does not hybridize. (5.) That NV. Blaae is merely 
a comprehensive series of hybrids, mainly N. clffortvoides and x fusca. 
(6. ) That N. apiculata is certainly another series, for the most part, but the 
‘type’ may be a species; though, judging from Colenso’s specimens, all 
seem taken from one tree.. (7.) That seedlings from hybrid trees are of 
an extremely mixed character. (8.) That probably N. cliffortiordes and 
N. Solandri cross; at any rate, the latter as figured in the ‘ Icones 
Plantarum ’ 1s van rare.—L. COCKAYNE.” 
1. N. Menziesi los an Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. v, 1x (1873) 355.—A tall 
forest-tree 60-80 ft. or even 100 ft. high; trunk 2-5 ft. diam. or more ; 
bark white and silvery, especially in young trees; branchlets clothed with 
fulvous pubescence. Leaves evergreen, shortly petiolate, 3-;in. long, 
broadly ovate-deltoid or rhomboid or almost orbicular, obtuse, shortly 
unequally cuneate at the base, thick and coriaceous, rigid, glabrous except 
the petiole, irregularly doubly crenate; margins thickened; stipules 
membranous, reddish, pubescent. Male flowers solitary, on short curved 
peduncles in the lower axils of the branchlets. Perianth 4—6-lobed. 
Stamens 6-12. Female involucres in the upper axils, 2—3-flowered. Fruit- 
ing-involucres }-4in. long, faintly pubescent ; lobes with 5-7 transverse 
rows of recurved linear processes tipped with an obtuse gland. Nuts 
puberulous, 3- or more rarely 2-winged, wings produced upwards into sharp 
flat points.—Fagus Menziesii Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant, (1844) t. 652 ; 
Raoul Choix (1846) 42; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 249; Tf. Kirk 
Forest Fl. (1889) t. 89; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 640. 
Norra Istanp: Mountain forests from the Thames goldfields southwards, but 
rare and local to the north of the East Cape. Soutu Istanp: Hilly and mountain 
forests from Nelson to Foveaux Strait, most plentiful on the west side of the Island, 
Sea-level to 3500 ft. Tawhai ; Tawar; Silver-beech. November—January. | 
Easily distinguished by the rigid doubly toothed leaves and recurved glandular 
processes on the fruiting-involuores. The wood is dark-red, strong and compact, and 
easily worked, but is not durable when exposed to the weather. It has been recom- 
mended for furniture, tubs and buckets, wine-oasks, &c., but is not largely used‘at the 
present time. 
It is worth remarking that the tips of the branches are sometimes diseased and 
converted into much-branched paniculate masses clothed with fulvous imbricating 
scales, closely resembling a paniculate inflorescence in young bud. On the under- 
surface of the leaves, at the junction of the main veins with the midrib, there are usually 
1-3 curious bce pits or domatia, very similar to those on the leaves of certain 
Coprosmas. 
(a S ) 
2. N. fusea/Oerst. in Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. v, ix (1873) 355.—A noble 
forest-tree 60-100 ft. high; trunk 4-8 ft. diam.; bark dark-brown or black 
in old plants, deeply furrowed, smooth and greyish- white on young trees ; 
branchlets and petioles pubescent. Leaves evergreen, petiolate, #-1}1in. 
long, broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or rarely acute, cuneate at the 
base, rather thin but firm, pubescent above and glandular beneath when 
young, glabrous when old, deeply and sharply serrate, veins conspicuous ; 
stipules linear-oblong, caducous. Male flowers 2-3 at the end of a short 
curved axillary peduncle or more rarely solitary, drooping. Perianth 
5-toothed, membranous, pubescent. Stamens 8-16. Female invelucres 
