Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/324

 CHAPTER XXXVIII.

NEW ZEALAND TREES—(Continued).

THE KAHIKATEA OR KAKATERRA TREE (Dacrydium excelsium or Dacrydium taxifolium).

majestic and noble-looking tree belongs to the natural order of Taxaccæ, more commonly known by the name of Joint Firs. It is a native chiefly of the temperate zone, and found abundantly in the close and dense forests of New Zealand, occupying many of the deep ravines, and generally preferring shelter and a low-lying moist situation to bring it to the greatest perfection.

It is of straight and lofty growth, frequently attaining a height of 150 to 180 feet, with a circumference of 6 to 15 feet. It is not an uncommon thing to meet with trees of this description, rising 60 feet and upwards in the stem, without a branch, and from thence to see them spreading out obliquely and forming a splendid conical top. The bark is dark brown in colour, rough, in strips, and also scaly; the lower portion of the stem being generally covered with moss.

The leaves are short, dark-green in colour, narrow, rigid and erect, bristling evenly all round the branchlets.The fruit is a red berry, which the natives are very fond