534 ON A NEW KIND OF PHORMIUM, 
Chaldy (Cloudy?) Bay (46° 30^* latit. 166° 23’ long.), is very dis- 
tinct from the long known yellow-flowered kind ; but no description 
of it has yet been published, and it has been completely neglected 
by most botanists, who speak only of a single species of Phor- 
mium. However, Capt. Js. Cook perfectly distinguished at first 
two kinds of New Zealand flax, and made mention of both in the 
following terms: “There is a plant that serves the inhabitants in- 
stead of hemp and flax, which excels all that are put to the same 
purpose in other countries. Of this plant there are two sorts; 
the leaves of both resemble those of the Flags (ris); in one kind, 
the flowers are yellow: in the other, they are deep red;" In the 
French edition of the 2nd. Voyage, vol. 1. pl. 8, New Zealand flax is 
figured, but the plate is so imperfect that it is very difficult to state 
which of the two was represented; however, the inflorescence 
is very similar to that of our kind of Cherbourg. 
Anderson and Forster mention but a single yellow-flowered 
species, which the latter calls Phormium tenax, and of which he 
gave a description, transcribed by Mr. A. Richard, in his Wore de 
la Nouvelle Zélande (Voyage del" Astrolabe, Botanique, page 153.); 
but that description seems to have been made from several kinds, 
since the characters described by Forster agree completely with 
neither of the two I know. Indeed the characters concerning the 
inflorescence, (the colour of the stem and peduncles being ex- 
cepted,) agree with our red- and green-flowered kind; but the 
flowers of the Ph. tenas are said by Forster to be yellow, and7con- 
sequently identical with those of the kind hitherto cultivated in 
Kurope ; then, the form of the ovary and the colour of the style, 
belong again to our plant of Cherbourg. Forster appears to have 
intentionally confounded several species in a single one, for he 
knew a red-flowered plant, since it is found in his original draw- 
ings. After Forster, most of the botanists considered but the 
yellow plant, and a few only made a vague mention of the red 
one, as a mere variety of PA. tenaz. At last, Dr. J. Dalton Hooker 
distinguished again two species, and called one P4. Colensoi. On 
that subject, I beg leave to transcribe here, a most interesting 
_* Tt will be observed that this is very far south of where the Phormium tenaz, 
hitherto cultivated in Europe, may be supposed to have come from. Ed. 
