Tas. 6028, 
FRE YCINETIA Banxstr. 
Native of New Zealand. 
Nat. Ord. PANDANEA. 
Genus Freyowetia, Gaudichaud ; (Endl. Gen. Pl., p. 242). 
FREYCINETIA Banksit ; alte scandens, caule gracili ramoso, ramis foliosis, 
foliis confertis 2—3-pedalibus e basi vaginante anguste lineari-subulatis 
1-poll. latis marginibus carinaque minute spinuloso-serrulatis, bracteis 
e. basi lata ovata concava carnosa alba v. pallide lilacina subulato- 
lanceolatis erectis, spadicibus simplicibus erectis breviter crasse pedun- 
culatis, masculis 3-5 poll. longis 3 poll. diametro elongato conicis 
obtusis, ‘staminibus 8-12( ‘eines ovariun Pudimentatiam oblongum 
crenulatum dispositis, filamentis elongatis, spadice femineo oblongo- 
cylindraceo obtuso, ovariis longitudinaliter elongatis, stylo crasso disco 
angusto crenulato (crenulis stigmatibus respondentibus) coronato, ovulis 
numerosissimis supra totam superficiem internam cavitatis ovarii con-— 
ree oblique pendulis, staminodiis parvis remotis spathulatis stylo 
adnatis. 
Freycinet Banksii, Cunningham in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag., vol. ii. p. 877 ; 
Hook. f. Flor, Nov. Zel., vol. i. p. 237, t. 54, 55; Handbook of the New 
Zealand Flora, p. 275. 
A well-known New Zealand plant, the Kie Kie of the 
natives (according to Mr. Mantell), whose fleshy bracts, called 
Tawhara, are greedily eaten by them, and also made by the 
colonists into a very luscious. jelly tasting like strawberries. 
In reference to this, the late Dr. Sinclair informed me that 
this food was so highly prized by the natives, that in some 
parts of the island, the forests where the plant abounds is 
tabooed till the bracts are ready for eating, when the members 
of the tribe to whom the forest belongs, at a given signal rush 
into the woods and satiate themselves with the luscious food. 
It is common in the forests of the Northern Island, as far south 
as the East Cape, and it is said to occur in the Middle Island 
also, but I have seen no specimens from thence. It festoons 
APRIL Ist, 1873. 
