Leaves, 1 to 1½ inch long, thin in texture, ovate, rounded at the apex; serrations large, few, irregular ; nerves four to seven pairs.
14. Nothofagus Moorei, Krasser. Large tree, Australia. Introduced. Leaves, 2 to 3 inches long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; sharply and finely serrate; nerves ten to fifteen pairs.
III. Leaves evergreen, entire in margin. In this section, the leaves on young trees are glabrous; but on older trees they become densely tomentose on the under surface. They resemble considerably the leaves of certain species of Vaccinium.
15. Wothofagus cliffortioides, Oerstedt. Large tree, New Zealand. Introduced. Leaves, ¼ to ½ inch long, ovate, rounded at the base ; tomentum whitish.
16. Nothofagus Solandri, Oerstedt. Large tree, New Zealand. Not intro- duced. Leaves ¼ to ½ inch long, oblong, cuneate at the base; tomentum whitish.
17. Nothofagus Blairi,? Krasser. Large tree, New Zealand. Not introduced. Leaves # inch long, ovate, rounded at the base, apiculate at the apex; tomentum yellowish. (A.H.)
NOTHOFAGUS CLIFFORTIOIDES
- Nothofagus cliffortioides, Oerstedt, Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift. V. ix. 355 (1873).
- Fagus cliffortioides, J.D. Hooker, in Hook. Icon. Plant. tt. 673 (1844) and 816b (1852), Flora New Zealand, i, 230 (1854), and Handb, New Zealand Flora, 250 (1864); Kirk, Forest Flora New Zealand, 201, tt. 101, 101a (1889); Cheeseman, Mew Zealand Flora, 643 (1906).
An evergreen tree, attaining, in New Zealand, about 50 feet in height and 6 feet in girth. Young branchlets pubescent; buds minute, ovoid, shining, brown. Leaves (Plate 202, Fig. 4) persistent for two or three years, distichous and crowded on the branchlets, coriaceous, minute, ¼ to ½ inch in length, entire in margin; on young plants ovate, rounded at both base and apex, green and glabrous on both surfaces ; on adult trees, ovate or ovate-oblong, rounded and unequal at the base, subacute at the apex, minutely punctate above, greyish-white with dense appressed pubescence beneath ; petioles short and pubescent. Male flowers solitary; stamens eight to twelve. Fruit: involucre ⅛ to ¼ inch long, three-lobed, each lobe with two or three entire transverse lamellæ; nuts one to three, winged, one or two triquetrous, the third flattened.
This tree is known in New Zealand as the “mountain birch,” and is confined to mountainous regions except in the south-western corner of the South Island, where it descends to sea-level. It is not found in the northern part of the North Island; but elsewhere is very common in the forests3 between 2000 and 4000 feet elevation,
1 Fagus Solandri, Hooker, Icon. Plant. t. 639 (1844).
2 Fagus Blairii, Kirk, Trans, N. Zeal. Inst. xvii. 297, 306 (1885).
3 A view of a forest of this species in the South Island at 3000 feet, showing a dense undergrowth of young beech and tall smooth stems of older trees, is given in Schimper, Plant Geography, 760, f. 460 (1904).
