Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/694

654 ¼–⅓ in. long, linear, obtuse, sessile by a comparatively broad base, flat, coriaceous; midrib usually distinct. Leaves on the upper and fertile branches small and scale-like, densely quadrifariously appressed, $1⁄25$–$1⁄12$ long, triangular, obtuse, very thick and coriaceous. Flowers diœcious. Males solitary, terminal, sessile, $1⁄10$–$1⁄8$ in. long. Female flowers near the tips of the branchlets. Nuts 1 or 2, small, striate, compressed, obtuse, about $1⁄12$ in. long.—Forest Fl. t. 37; Pilger in Pflanzenreich, iv. 5, 46.

4. D. cupressinum, ''Soland. ex Forst. Pl. Escul.'' 80.—A tall forest-tree 60–80 ft. or even 100 ft. high, with a comparatively small round-topped head when mature, but pyramidal when young, with very long pale-green pendulous branches; trunk 2–5 ft. diam.; bark dark-brown, scaling off in large flakes. Leaves imbricating all round the branch; of young trees lax, ascending, ⅙–¼ in. long, linear-subulate, acute, almost acerose, decurrent at the base; gradually passing into those of the mature trees, which are much smaller and more closely set and more appressed to the branch, $1⁄12$–$1⁄8$ in. long, linear, acute, trigonous, keeled at the back. Flowers diœcious. Males solitary or rarely 2 together at the tips of the branchlets, oblong; connective broadly ovate, acuminate. Female flowers solitary on the curved tips of the branchlets. Nut ovoid, barely compressed, about ⅛ in. long, seated within a cup-shaped aril; receptacle and bracts sometimes enlarged, fleshy and coloured, at other times remaining dry and unaltered.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 361; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 332; Raoul, Choix, 41; Hook. f. FL. Nov. Zel. i. 233; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 258; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 18-22; Pilger in Pflanzenreich,'' iv. 5, 53. Thalamia cupressina, ''Spreng. Syst.'' iii. 890.

Abundant in forests throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Rimu; Red-pine.

A well-known tree, the young state of which, with its graceful shape and pale-green pendent branches, is perhaps as beautiful and attractive as any tree