OR NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 5385 
letter, received from the celebrated Director of the Royal Gardens 
of Kew :—“ Besides the common and well known large yellow- 
flowered PAormiwm," says Sir William Hooker, “we have re- 
ceived, from Mr. Colenso, a small red-flowered kind (in all proba- 
bility the one to which you allude), and as Mr. Colenso was the 
first to direct my son, Dr. Hooker’s, attention to this, he gave it 
the MS. name of PA. Colensoi. He however further ascertained 
that kind, figured by Forster, in his original drawings in the Brit- 
ish Museum, to be the small red-flowered one. It may then be- 
come a question which of the two ought to bear the name of 
tenaz (a name, which in my opinion, ought on no account to be 
abolished). It would appear that Forster considered there was 
but one species, and that in reality he gave the name (tenaz) to 
that which is in common use, and which, I suppose, is the 
yellow-flowered one. If so, especially seeing that the yellow sort has 
invariably been called PA. tenax, I think the name should be re- 
tained to that. From further researches, I find, however, that Mr. 
Colenso is not the first to distinguish the two. Capt. Cook, in his 
Voyage, expressly says there are two species, one with a yellow and 
the other with a red flower: and it would seem to me more just, 
that the name of that distinguished navigator should be given to 
the second species, since no description has been published of it 
hitherto; but that matter I entirely leave to your judgment, as 
well as the credit of publishing truly distinguishing characters, 
which can only be done from the living plants: for even the yellow- 
flowered one blossoms rarely with us. I do not think the red- - 
flowered Phormium is in cultivation in England; I never heard of 
it. I possess in my herbarium the fruit of a Phormium, which is 
very different from that of Ph. tenax, (auct.) and which, if it does 
not belong to the red-flowered kind (and I do not think it does), 
must be that of a third species. It is five inches long, and the 
valves very thin and membranaceous. I should be curious to 
know which is the species of Norfolk Island?” 
From what precedes, as several species appear to be confounded 
together, and as I have no certitude that the red- and green-flower- 
ed plant of Cherbourg is the same as the small red-flowered P4. 
