Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/225

Rh from the tree by any process of tapping or reducing from the wood. The tree falls and dies, and then, when it decays, the gum collects in lumps in the ground. It takes years and years for it to collect, and this little lump, which I have just taken from the ground, has probably been lying here for centuries. A new forest has risen where the old one stood, and has taken a long, long while to grow.'

"We asked what other timber-trees there were in New Zealand, and our informant mentioned the, or white pine; the , or red pine; the , which is claimed to be impervious to the attacks of the teredo; and the , which has a handsome, close-grained, and durable wood, and whose bark furnishes a strong dye. Then there is the , which is much like the English yew, and is used for making furniture; the , which has a beautiful red fruit on which pigeons grow fat; and the , which has a remarkable leaf and a durable wood.

"There is a great variety of tree-ferns, some of them reaching a height of forty feet, and a diameter of twelve inches or more. The most tropical of all the trees of New Zealand is the, which is the only representative of the palm family. The ferns are more tropical than the trees, and add very much to the beauty of the forest, though they impede locomotion in many places. As for fruit-trees, there are very few indigenous to the country, but nearly everything that grows in the United States or England flourishes, and they have many things here that are strangers to us at home. Peaches, apples, apricots, figs, oranges, strawberries, pears, and other fruits are abundant in their seasons, and some of them reach a luxuriance and perfection surpassing that of the countries whence they came.

"Near the Kauri forest we were shown a Maori pah, or fort, that is