Also towhai. (Native Maori name. (Not to be confused with TAWHAI.)] A large New Zealand timber tree, Weinmannia racemosa, N.O. Saxifragaceæ, also called by colonists Black Birch.
1845. Wakefield, Adv. N. Zealand, II. 95. (Morris). Its banks … are covered almost wholly with the towai. This tree has very small dark leaves. It is used for ship-building, and is called by Englishmen the ‘black birch.’
1851. Mrs. Wilson, N. Zealand, 43. The ake … and towai (Leiospermum racemosum) are almost equal, in point of colour, to rosewood.
1883. J. Hector, Handbk. N. Zealand, 132 (Morris). Towhai, Kamahi. A large tree; trunk two to four feet in diameter, and fifty feet high.
