verse rows of recurved linear processes tipped with an obtuse gland. Nuts puberulous, 3- or more rarely 2-winged, wings produced upwards into sharp flat points.—Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 229; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 249; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 89. Nothofagus Menziesii, Oerst. in Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. v. ix. (1873) 355.
North Island: Mountain forests from the Thames goldfields southwards, but rare and local to the north of the East Cape. South Island: Hilly and mountain forests from Nelson to Foveaux Strait, most plentiful on the west side of the island. Sea-level to 3500ft. Taiohai; Tawai; Silver-birch; Red-birch. November–January.
Easily distinguished by the rigid doubly toothed leaves and recurved glandular processes on the fruiting involucres. The wood is dark-red, strong and compact, and easily worked, but is not durable when exposed to the weather. It has been recommended for furniture, tubs and buckets, winecasks, &c., but is not largely used at the present time.
It is worth remarking that the tips of the branches are sometimes diseased and converted into much-branched paniculate masses clothed with fulvous imbricating scales, closely resembling a paniculate inflorescence in young bud. On the under-surface of the leaves, at the junction of the main veins with the midrib, there are usually 1–3 curious fringed pits or domatia, very similar to those on the leaves of certain Coprosmas.
2. F. fusca, Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 631.—A noble forest-tree 60–100 ft. high; trunk 4–8 ft. diam.; bark dark-brown or black in old plants, deeply furrowed, smooth and greyish-white on young trees; branchlets and petioles pubescent. Leaves evergreen, petiolate, ¾–1½ in. long, broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or rarely acute, cuneate at the base, rather thin but firm, pubescent above and glandular beneath when young, glabrous when old, deeply and sharply serrate, veins conspicuous; stipules linear-oblong, caducous. Male flowers 2–3 at the end of a short curved axillary peduncle or more rarely solitary, drooping. Perianth 5-toothed, membranous, pubescent. Stamens 8–16. Female involucres solitary in the upper axils, 2–3-flowered. Fruiting involucres ⅓–½ in. long, ovoid-globose, viscid-pubescent, 4-lobed; lobes furnished at the back with 3–5 transverse lamellæ with entire or fringed margins. Nuts pubescent, 2–3-winged, wings produced upwards into entire or toothed points.—Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook, f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 229; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 249; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 90. Nothofagus fusca, Oerst. in Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. v. ix. (1873) 355.
Var. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 229.—Leaves more coriaceous, teeth smaller, obtuse.—Ic. Plant. t. 630; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 90, f. 2. F. truncata, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 280.
North Island: In forests from Mongonui and Kaitaia southwards, but local to the north of the East Cape. South Island: From Nelson to Foveaux Strait, but rare in Canterbury and eastern Otago. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Tawhai; Tawhai-rau-nui; Black-birch; Red-birch. October–December.
