Art. XXXVII.—Description of a new Species of Fagus.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 17, 1884, Page 297

Art. XXXVII.—Description of a new Species of Fagus. By T. Kirk, F.L.S. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 1st October, 1884.] Plate XVI Fagus blairii, n. s A tree 40–60 feet high, trunk 2–2 ½ feet in diameter. Young twigs and petioles slightly pubescent. Leaves spreading, petioled, ovate, entire, minutely apiculate, abruptly rounded at the base, coriaceous, 2/3″–¾″ long, 1/3″–½″ broad, clothed beneath with fulvous appressed tomentum. Valves of the involucre with a membranous margin and one or two narrow scales at the outer base. Nuts winged, wings shortly bifid. Hab. South Island. By the Little Grey River, Nelson, Head of Lake Wakatipu, Valley of the Dart, Otago: T. Kirk. Five Rivers Plain: W. N. Blair. This species is closely allied to F. cliffortioides, Hook. f., from which it differs in the habit and spray, which resemble those of the European beech, and especially in the ovate apiculate leaves, which are of larger size and are never cordate, while the pubescence is of a fulvous hue, never white. I have

not seen Mr. Blair's specimen from the Five Rivers, but, as he at once identified it with mine from the Dart Valley, I entertain no doubt of his correctness, and have great pleasure in connecting his name with the species. Explanation of Plate XVI 1. Fagus blairii. Natural size. 2. Leaf enlarged. 3. Involucre. 4. Nut slightly enlarged.