144 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



The harakeke, as the Maoris call the flax, was their most important 

 plant, for on it their supply of clothing almost entirely depended. 

 Dress mats of great variety were made from its fibre at an infinite 

 expenditure of patience and labour. Some of these were dyed various 

 colours, and were provided with elaborate borders. It also played its 

 part in the Maori pharmacopoeia, being prepared in various ways for 

 external application chiefly. From the dry flower-stalks, the koiari. 

 the Morioris of the Chathams built their fragile canoes. 



Like the cabbage-tree, the flax is an admirable garden plant, and 

 there are a number of very distinct varieties. Of these the principal 

 are various variegated forms belonging to both species. Some, if not 

 absolutely " true " to seed, certainly yield a large percentage of varie- 

 gated plants ; others, again, will put forth green leaves, and finally 

 revert to the type, as did an especially fine specimen the author col- 

 lected a number of years ago on the flanks of Mount Sherwood, in 

 southern Maiiborough. There is also a showy purple-leaved variety, 

 especially striking when young, and a pleasing form with rather bronzy 

 drooping leaves, marked with a dark line on the margin. Beyond the 

 borders of New Zealand the flax is cultivated for ornament in all civi- 

 lised lands. 



The Maoris, too, cultivated the plant to some extent, and gave 

 names to the different varieties. Hector's work, published in 187 

 enumerates no fewer than fifty-six. But doubtless many of these are 

 identical, w T hile it is probable that the same name was used by different 

 tribes for distinct varieties ; consequently, the Maori names are of 

 little moment. Yet it must be noted that some of the Maori varieties 

 contain a much better class of fibre than that of the average swamp 

 plant. 



Botanic-airy, Phormium tenax is a most variable plant. The colour 

 of the leaf -margin and midrib, the length of leaf-butt, its interior 

 colour and gum-content, the stiffness of leaf, the breadth of leaf, 

 the form and colour of flower, and the shape, size, and direction 

 of growth of the pod all these and other characters differ in different 

 individuals. Indeed, it needs a close examination of any specimen 

 and a long experience with flax - variation before one is able to 

 select different varieties from the heterogeneous mass of a phormium 

 swamp. 



