Soft Woods.

Coniferæ.

So far as the constructive arts are concerned this is the most important of the botanical orders. According to Dr. Hooker, it is represented in New Zealand by five genera and thirteen species, as follows:—

1.	Dammara, consisting of 1 species
2.	Libocedrus consisting of 2 species
3.	Podocarpus consisting of 5 speciespage 152
4.	Dacrydium consisting of 3 species.
5.	Phyllocladus consisting of 2 species
Total number of species	13

Of the above one in each of the three last genera is a mere shrub or small Alpine tree frequenting the mountain ranges of the interior, generally from an altitude of 3,000 feet upwards. They are therefore of no economic value. The first in the list is the famous kauri, monarch of New Zealand timbers. Unfortunately it is absent from Otago, therefore does not conn within the scope of our inquiry. This reduces the number of the Conifere timber trees in the province to nine. I shall now consider them seriatim in the order established by Hooker, as above, which is also followed in Table I. hereto appended.

No. 1. Cedar—Libocedrus bidwillii. This tree belongs to a small subdivision of the coniferæ family that has only three representatives out of New Zealand, all of which, like our native plants, frequent mountain ranges. These three are all found on the western side of the American continent from British Columbia to the Straits of Magellan. The members of this genus were formerly classed as Thuja or Arbor vitaæ; but the present name, which means incense cedar, is now universally adopted. I do not know why they should be so named. The New Zealand varieties do not emit incense, and under any circumstance the name seems inapplicable, for the genus was not discovered until long after the practice of burning wood for incense had ceased.

"The Handbook of New Zealand Flora" gives two species of cedar-Libocedrus doniana and Libocedrus bidwillii; the former of which is stated as furnishing good and the latter worthless timber. In naming L. bidwilliiDr. Hooker says:—"I advance this species with much hesitation. It is difficult to suppose that a timber tree described as having excellent wood, and growing at the Bay of Islands at the level of the sea (I gathered L doniana on the banks of the Kawa-kawa river) should be the same as one inhabiting the mountains of the Middle Island, and described by Buchana as having soft worthless wood, but I can find very little difference between the specimens." He further points out that they are botanically alike, and seems to depend to a great extent on the difference of the timber in making them distinct species. I hope to prove that instead of being worthless this one of the most valuable and durable timbers in Otago. It is therefore possible that the trees in the North and South Islands are identical. Mr, Buchanan refers to the Otago cedar as L. doniana, and mentions no other but Mr. Kirk seems to recognise two distinct species, and calls the Otago one L. bidwillii. I shall therefore adhere to the latter name, but assume that the tree that I describe is the same as Buchanan's L. doniana.

Cedar is plentiful on the mountain ranges of the cast coast, from the Mataura River to Waikouaiti, but scarce in all the other forests of the province; it is generally found from an altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 foot. The greater portion of the timber trees on Mount Cargill, and the northern slopes of Flagstaff and Mihiwaka, are of cedar. This tree is easily recognized: the trunk is usually quite free of branches, and the head is of a handsome conical shape. The lowest branches, which are also the widest, I grow in a horizontal direction, consequently the base of the cone is well-defined. The bark is rough and fibrous like totara, but the foliage, which is erect and stiff, has a greater resemblance to old rimu. The tree grows to height of from sixty to eighty feet, with a clear trunk of from twenty to forty feet long, and two to three feet in diameter, but the larger of these sizes is rare. At Mihiwaku the trunks are generally from eighteen niches to two feet in diameter, and twenty feet long, but they are somewhat longer near the head of the Waitaki. The tree from which one of the boards shown was cut grew on Pine Hill, the trunk of which measured thirty-five feet in length. The cedars of the Kaihiku Ranges are the same size as at Blueskin, but some trees at Catlin River are much larger. One trunk recently measured was forty feet long, three feet six inches in diameter at the butt, and three feet at the top; the log had a slight twist in the grain, but was straight and sound throughout. Buchanan mentions a cedar, cut in the vicinity of Dunedin, that was four feet in diameter.

The wood is of a dark red colour, straight grained and solid, but rather weak. It resembles very much the famous redwood of California (Sequoia W sempervirens), which is the timber most used in America for railway sleepers, and here for Venetian blinds. Buchanan says that the heart-wood of L. bidwillii is so soft that soap-bubbles may be blown through a foot length of it; but this is no criterion of its value, for the same thing may be done with most straight grained timbers. Blowing bubbles through new planes, which are made of solid beech wood, is a favourite amusement among young carpenters in the Old Country, and I have seen bubbles blown quite easily through an oak stave three feet long that had been taken from an old beer cask. As a matter of curiosity, the experiment was tried with cedar; samples of old and young timber, seasoned and unseasoned, were tried, but in no case could bubbles be blown through three inches of heart-wood. We must therefore conclude that Mr. Buchanan's specimen was more porous than usual.

Cedar grows faster than most European timber trees; judging from the annual rings, it reaches maturity in from 170 to 400 years. There is very little sap-wood generally—not more than from an inch to an inch and a page 154 half in ordinary trees. The large one cut at Catlin River had two inches at the butt and three at the top.

This tree is very much subject to heart decay; probably a third of the aged trees in the Blueskin and Kaihiku districts are more or less affected in this way, but those on lower ground on Catlin River are nearly all sound. The decay is usually a core three or four inches in diameter, but occasionally reaching seven inches, and having similar patches throughout other parts of the trunk. This is a serious objection so far as economical cutting up is concerned, but it does not affect the durability of the timber, as the decay ceases as soon as the tree is felled. Although a roughness of bark does not always indicate a hollow heart, it has been observed that a smooth one is a sure indication of sound timber. Cedar has been objected to as subject to excessive and irregular shrinkage and warping, but my experience of it does not warrant such a conclusion. I believe that the sound timber is as little subject to these defects as any other of the pines.

Hitherto this timber has been little used, except for fencing posts, house blocks, piles, and railway sleepers; but it is suited for ordinary house framing, and other purposes of a similar character, where great strength is not requred; the straighter grained portions would make shingles, mouldings, and small cabinet-work. I am assured that good samples work as freely as clear pine.

I have already referred to the low opinion entertained of this timber by leading authorities. It is further described as not durable by Dr. Hector, Mr. Buchanan, and the Jurors of the New Zealand Exhibition. I cannot understand how it could have got into such bad repute, for I can find no evidence against it; on the contrary, there is abundant proof that cedar in one of the most durable timbers in Otago—even the sap-wood lasts for years in situations where the heart of many other pines would fail. Much of the timber found on the ranges, where no tree has lived for centimes, and which is still in good preservation, is cedar. I show several samples found on the bare ranges at Kaihiku. There is a fence of this timber at Tokomairiro twenty-two years old. Mr. James Elder Brown sent mo a post in 1872, the heart-wood of which was quite fresh, and he said that the whole fence, about thirty-five chains long, was in the same condition. I show a portion of a cedar post taken a fortnight since from a stockyard on the old Waikouaiti Road, near Flagstaff, erected twenty-three years ago. The heart-wood is as sound as when the tree was felled, and the sap is only decayed for a short distanced the ground level. All the posts in the enclosure are in the same condition; they average from ten to twelve inches in diameter, with about one and all a'f inches of sap-wood. Mr. Peter Thompson, Queen-street, has a sapling cedar four and a half inches diameter for a flagstaff; it has been eight years page 155 in the ground and is still perfectly fresh. Any other pine sapling, under the same circumstances, would be quite rotten in twelve months.