Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/329

XXXVIII.] of the northern island of New Zealand. It is often met with upon the banks of rivers, where the tide washes its roots; but, generally, it seems to require shelter and a moderately moist soil to produce the finest trees.

It rises with a clean stem to about 35 to 40 feet, above which the branches are thrown out horizontally. The foliage consists of sharp-pointed dark green leaves, of about 1¼ inch in length by ¼ inch in width; they are thick, rigid, and prickly to the touch. The bark is red in colour, and ringed at about 1 foot apart; the outer layers hang in thin long flakes; strips of this bark are often used as a thatch for roofing.

The Totara tree yields timber 10 to 22 inches square, and 20 to 45 feet in length. The wood is red in colour, close, straight, fine and even in grain, and is moderately hard and strong. It works up exceedingly well, and, although plain in appearance, would be found a good substitute for Mahogany, whether used for furniture, carpentry, or in the domestic arts. It might also be employed with advantage in civil architecture. The alburnum or sap-wood is generally from 2 to 3 inches thick on this description of timber, and is lighter in colour than the duramen or heart-wood.

The natives make their small and medium sized canoes of the Totara, and generally prefer that the rising strake of the larger ones, and especially those employed in war, should be of this wood, as it wears better than Kauri, and is considered durable. I gathered the information from several intelligent natives that in the southern districts there are very large forests of Totara trees, of sufficient size and length for masts of ships of 1,000 to 1,500 tons burthen.

When fresh cut the specific gravity of this wood is about 1230, but when seasoned it is only about 600.