Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 64

Ribbon Woods

Ribbon Woods.

Table I. gives the name of three different trees (Nos. 15, 10, and 17) that are popularly known by the name of Ribbon Wood. They are, botanically, quite distinct, but possess some properties in common, and are of little economic value, consequently I shall treat them collectively. The trees are seldom more than eighteen inches diameter. The wood is white or light brown, with strongly marked medullary rays, tough and easily split, but I quite worthless in point of durability. One variety is so straight grained that long rails can be split quite parallel though only an inch thick. For this reason the timber was formerly in great demand for fencing and shingles, but experience of its liability to decay has brought it into disrepute. Ribbon wood is not durable in any situation that is in the least exposed to the action of the weather.

No.18. Grass Tree—Panax crassifolium, is common everywhere through-out the province, and well known from its unique appearance. It grows to height of twenty-five feet, but the trunk seldom exceeds twelve inches in diameter. When young the leaves are from twelve to eighteen inches in length, and droop against the stem, but as the tree grows old they gradually decrease to three or four inches, and become quite erect and rigid. The timber is hard, strong, and durable. The young wood being particularly tough and elastic is suitable for axe handles and similar purposes. The piles in the first jetty erected by the settlers at Port Chalmers in 1850 were of grass tree. A portion of it, still in existence, shows the timber to be in good preservation, and perfectly free from the ravages of marine animals. A piece of the piles between high and low-water mark is discoloured and soft, but the fibre of the wood is still intact, and the remainder of the piles are as sound as when erected. It is worthy of remark that these piles emit a strong offensive smell like that from a cow byre, and that cattle will not eat the leaves of any of the grass trees, which is quite in keeping with the general character of the ivy tribe to which they belong. They have all a strong smell more pungent than agreeable. Probably this may account for the fact that the piles at Port Chalmers were not molested by marine animals.