Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/315

 CHAPTER XXXVII.

NEW ZEALAND TREES.

THE KAURIE, OR COWDIE PINE (Dammara Australis),

Is a native of and is found only in New Zealand. It is most plentiful about the middle part of the northern island, where there are very extensive forests of it, but it is only moderately abundant a little farther south, and towards Wellington, and in the middle island, it is only sparingly met with.

It is a tall and very handsome tree, with a slightly tapering stem, and reaches, in sheltered situations, a height of ioo to 140 feet, with a circumference of from 9 to 15 feet; and even much larger specimens are occasionally met with. At Wangaroa, a little to the northward of the Bay of Islands, I measured one that was 48 feet in circumference at 3 feet from the ground. It was a well-grown, healthy-looking tree, with a heavy cluster of branches thrown out at about 66 feet from the base, and these, spreading obliquely, covered a large space. Many others approximating in dimensions to this magnificent specimen were seen, but the largest that I ever met with was one standing near to Mercury Bay, which measured 80 feet to the branches, and 72 feet in circumference.