NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18861, 8 November 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

THE KAURI PINE.

EI J. DRUitMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

A question has been raised by Mr. H. J. Le BaiTTy, of Buckland, Waikato, as to the position held by the kauri among forest giants. His Canadian cousin sent him a clipping from the Manitoba Free Press, giving an account of a shipment of " sticks'* of Douglas fir, or Oregon pine, each 16 inches by 16 inches and 80 feet long. With them were " sticks'' of the same timber one foot by one foot and 40 feet long, one foot by one foot and 60 feet long, one foot by one foot and 50 feet long, 16 inches by 16 inches, and 40 feet long, and 16 inches by 16 inches and 75 feet long. Mr. Le Bailly, a New Zealander of forty years standing, ask.'i for the credit of the Dominion if those Canadian figures can be beaten by the dimensions of New Zealand's most famous pine. Figures as to the average and maximum quantity of timber in a kauri tree are not'&t hand just now; but the kauri's average height is from 50 feet to 120 feet; its maximum recorded height is 170 feet; its average diameter is from four feet to ten feet; its maximum recorded diameter is twenty-four feet, and most kauris now cut for sawing range from threo feet to eight feet in diameter.

The Douglas fir averages a height of 200 feet and a diameter of ten feet. According to the figures available, it is larger than tho kauri. The three-feet kauris, according to iho latest calculations, are about 175 years of age, and eight feet ones are about 465 years; but a Mercury Bay giant, 24 feet in diameter, was registered by the late Mr. T. F. Cheeseman as 1728 years of age, and a lesser giant, at Maunganui Bluff, 22 feet in diameter, at 1280 years. He discredited former estimates by botanists, which gave the Maunganui Bluff Methuselah an age of 3960 years, and the Mercury Bay one 4320 years.

There seems to be a weakness in people to exaggerate the sizes of trees. Many estimates, even in text-books, are conjectures. A famous dragon tree on tho Canai'y Islands, blown down by a storm, was found to have a diameter of more than 26 feet. Its estimated age of from 8000 to 10,000 years has been greatly reduced by modern botanists. It was conjectured some. 30 years ago that tho big trees of California, Sequoia gigantea, the biggest trees in the world, were from 3000 to 5000 years of age. When the Sta.te geologist of California made the first accurate measurements, the maximum diameter of the specimen examined was 24 feet, and the age, based on the annual rings, was stated at 1255 years. A full-sized tree felled in Fresno County later, had a diameter of about 20 feet eight feet from the ground, was 300 feet high, and had lived for about 1335 years. Tho Encyclopaedia Britannica states that some of these big trees are 220 feet HTgTT and 35 feet in diameter, but botanists believe- that none of the Sequoia now living, or recently living, can be assigned a greater ago than 1500 years. Prostrate giants of the tallest species of the Australian gum trees have had their heights reduced, by actual measurement, from 500 feet to 300 feet, which seems to be very near their maximum.

Characteristically ; thorough investigations by Mr, Cheeseman of many kauris in different districts, and of different ages, led him to state that the ages and rate of growth of the kauri have been greatly over-estimated, a practice that seems to be applied to large trees everywhere. He found that kauris two feet in diameter would have an average age of 116 years; those three feet in diameter, 174 years; those four feet in diameter, 232 years. The kauri grows much more slowly than most trees of economic value. Another correspondent has asked if the kauri grows in Australia, as well as in New Zealand. It is the exclusive possession of this Dominion, and it does not grow south of 38 degrees south latitude; but a member of Che sfyne genus, known popularly as the Queensland kauri pine, grows in North-east Australia. As a matter of fact, there are about eight species of this pine, ranging from New Zealand to Australia, tho Malay Archipelago, Borneo, and some of the Polynesian Islands. The genus bears the name of Agathis, from a ball of thread, which the cones resemble. New Zealand's kauri is Agathis australis. This does not imply an association with Australia, but merely means the southern —austral—species of the genus. The Queensland species is Agathis robusta; its height averages from 50 feet to 100 feet. New Zealand's species is the most important member of the genus. It is regarded as an important part of the Malayan and Polynesian element that ages found its way into New Zealand's flora, mixing with Australian and South American and other elements.

Mr. W. W. Smith, New Plymouth, who has a surprising range of knowledge of natural history, and is one of the best observers in this Dominion, states that, as a result of a long and very hot summer, and a mild winter, humble bees have increased in Taranaki enormously. The queens were on the wing every sunshiny day during winter, and neuters were on the wing from eight to ten weeks earlier than their usual time of emergence. The " yellow-breeched philosopher," to whom Emerson wrote a charming poem, seems to be doing most harm. Mr. Smith wrote on October 12: —"The bees are playing havoc with hyacinths, Eenstemons, rhododendrons, and broadeans. Many of the queens are very large and robust, too large to enter the flowers legitimately. The yellow-banded» short-tongued species is the most destructive. The all black and brown-banded forms are not as numerous as the yellowbanded ones. I have not seen the yellowbanded species biting holes at the bases of the staminal tubes of broad beans, but some of them occasionally pass the mouth of a flower and insert their tongues into holes made previously. Honey bees also occasionally visit the small holes, to extract the honey from the outside of the staminal tubes. You will see from specimens of broad-beans I send that the flowers are not destroyed until they mature, when the honey accumulates in the nectary near the base of the stamens. -When the plants were coming into flower, I "dusted the flowers with soot, cayenne pepper and dry lime, but to no good purpose. This _ inefficacy is due to the heavy spring rains washing the materials off. They would bo effective in drier areas."

Several fairly large flocks of kuaka, or godwits, were seen by Mr. T?. F. Whitwoll, Oparau, Kawhia, on September 13. Ho writes:—"That is an early date for their arrival in numbers. Stragglers often are seen in the winter, but those were large flocks. Last year, I saw .1 huge flock, apparently in the act of settling down just after arrival. I was coming down the harbour. When some distance from tho heads, I saw what I took to bo a cloud of smoke from a steamer, around the North Head. When I got closer. I saw that it was countless numbers of godwits. _ I have seen some largo flocks of starlings, but the largest was completely dwarfed by this lot of godwits. They were wheeling around, and would almost settle then would rise again as if undecided just where to land. This continued until 1 went around a corner, and lost sight of them I was sorry I did not have time to watch them longer. The shore where they were is all low sandhills. They seemed to come from the north-west, as near as I could judgQ.