(usually 3–4), oblong, obtuse, compressed, striate, about ⅛ in. long.—Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst.x. (1878) 390, t. 19; Forest Fl. t. 97; Hook. f. Ic. Plant. t. 1219; Pilger in Pflanzenreich, iv. 5, 46.
North Island: In forests from Hokianga to the Manukau Harbour, rare and local. Whangaroa, Hector and Buchanan! between Hokianga and the Northern Wairoa, Petrie! between the Bay of Islands and Whangarei, R. Mair! T.F.C.; Great Barrier Island, Kirk! Titirangi (near Auckland), T.F.C. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Monoao.
A handsome tree, distinguished from its immediate allies by the large size, the large leaves of the young trees and lower branches of the old ones, the almost terete fertile branchlets, and the usually numerous nuts. The transition from the long linear leaves of the young state to the small scale-like leaves of the old plant is most abrupt. Both forms can often be found on the same branch. The wood is pale brownish-red, strong and compact, and exceedingly durable.
2. D. biforme, Pilger in Pflanzenreich, iv. 5, 45.—A small tree 15–30 ft. or 40 ft. high, in alpine localities often dwarfed to a few feet; trunk short, 1–2 ft. diam.; bark dark-brown; branches stout, clothed with the persistent and indurated leaves; mature branchlets tetragonous. Leaves of two forms; those of young plants and on the lower branches of old ones spreading, ⅓–¾ in. long, 115–112 in. broad, linear, acute, narrowed into a very short broad often twisted petiole, flat, coriaceous; midrib distinct. Leaves of old or fertile branchlets small and scale-like, densely quadrifariously imbricate and closely appressed, 120–112 in. long, triangular or rhomboid-triangular, obtuse, very thick and coriaceous, stoutly and prominently keeled on the back. Flowers dioecious. Males solitary, terminal, sessile, about ⅛ in. long; anthers 4–6; connective ovate, obtuse. Female flowers near the tips of the branchlets. Nuts 1–2 (usually solitary), oblong, obtuse, striate, compressed, about 110 in. long.—D. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 234, and Handb. N.Z. Fl. 259 (not of Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 548); Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 390; Forest Fl. t. 96. Podocarpus(?) biformis, Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 544.
North Island: Mountain districts from Tongariro and the Ruahine Mountains southwards, not common. South Island, Stewart Island: Not uncommon in mountain forests throughout. Usually from 2000 to 4500 ft., but descends to sea-level in the south-west of Otago and on Stewart Island. Yellow-pine; Tar-wood.
This is for the most part the D. Colensoi of the Flora and the Handbook; but, as shown elsewhere, not the plant originally described under that name by Sir W. J. Hooker.
3. D. Bidwillii, Hook. f. ex T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 388.—A closely branched erect or prostrate shrub 2–10 ft. high; lower branches spreading, sometimes reclinate and rooting; upper more erect, frequently giving a pyramidal form to the plant; trunk short, 3–9 in. diam. Leaves of two forms; those of young plants and on the lower branches of old ones spreading, crowded,
