Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/316

296 The Kauri is a slower-growing tree than most other Firs and Pines; it is slower even than the Pitch Pine of America, and makes only 1 inch of wood diameter in about 6 or 7 years. Thus, the two noble trees to which I have referred were, by computation, respectively about 1,300 and 2,000 years old; they were, however, almost unavailable for any industrial purpose, as it would be impossible to move these excessively large trees if they were cut down.

The Kauri has a dense foliage of tough leathery leaves, resembling in shape those of the Box plant; they vary from ¾ to 1¼ inch in length, are sessile, and the fruit is a cone of a spherical form of about 3 inches in diameter, enclosed in which are the winged seeds. The bark is quite smooth, and about 1 inch in thickness. It is a peculiarity of this species of Pine, that a fluid gum, or resin, of a milk-like character, oozes spontaneously out from every part of the tree, and hardens upon the surface by exposure to the air, immense masses of this opaque gum being often seen on old trees, suspended from the stem at the forked part of the branches.

Some few years since the British Government sent out several expeditions in succession to New Zealand, to procure spars fit for top-masts for line-of-battle ships, and it was while engaged on this special service that I first became acquainted with the properties of the Kauri Pine timber. Since the colonisation of that country, however, the business has been left to private enterprise, and spars, timber, and gum have occasionally formed part of the return cargoes of store and emigrant ships. Much more timber would, no doubt, have been shipped, were it not for the great expense that attends the working of the forests, and the cost of freight for so long a voyage. These two very costly items effectually