BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 221 
intend, at some future day, giving a descriptive account of this very 
elegant and useful, and very distinct species of Phormium.” True, I 
have not yet done this; but, inasmuch as its name has been long ago 
published in the two hemispheres, and that, too, with’ no lack of living 
botanical testimony to its identity, I think enough has been done to 
secure its first published specific name. There is, however, a slight 
error; and that is in your letter to M. Le Jolis (as printed in the Lond. 
Journ. Bot. vol. vii. p. 535), in which you speak of a * small red- 
flowered kind.” -Now, this species under consideration (P. Fosteria- 
num, alias Colensoi, alias Cookianum) is not wholly ved-flowered, but 
much as M. Le Jolis describes it, reddish without and green within. 
And it should not be forgotten, that the flowers of this plant darken 
considerably in drying, especially the lighter-coloured parts of the pe- 
rianth; and your having only imperfect and dried specimens to ex- 
amine, while M. Le Jolis had living ones, sufficiently accounts for your 
calling it a “red-flowered species.” Further; the fact is that both 
the Phormiums are highly sportive in the colour of their perianths, in the 
size of every part, and in the shape and size of their pods, scarcely any 
two of the latter being alike. Some are sharp-, others obtuse-angled ; 
some very acute at the apex, others quite as obtuse; some ¢wisted, 
others plain, and that on the same plant. Again, if a pod is allowed to 
remain until it is fully ripe—to become dry—before it be gathered, it 
will generally be membranaceous ; if, however, it is plucked before 
that period of dryness, it will be more or less thick and tough. And 
further, the whole flower (especially its perianth and styles) changes 
its colour considerably after impregnation, always becoming darker; so 
that, on a large full-flowered scape, flowers may be found of various hues. - 
There is, however, a large variety of the Common (or first-known) 
Phormium (for both species are equally common), which almost invaria- 
bly bears red flowers. This is the largest kind in New Zealand, and 
is, on account of its large size and little use, universally rejected by — 
the natives, who state its fibre to be less in quantity, as well as inferior _ 
in quality, to that of the other kinds; while its bulky parenchyma and 
superabundant gumminess make its manipulation a heavy work. This 
variety is found on the brink of rich alluvial ever-wet swamps, in deep - | 
rich soil on the margins of rivers, and, not unfrequently, near native : 
villages, and on the edges of woods; and, also, on dry and barren - 
sand-hills near the sea, as well as on certain sandy shores a little above 
high-water mark. I once thought that this variety might prove to be. 
