NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



the ti, tikauka, or tiiahau, served several purposes. The underground 

 stem, since it contained a large supply of starch, supplied a nutritious 

 if not an especially palatable kind of food, and the leaves were plaited 

 into flat or round ropes. In the north, however, C. pumilio was much 

 more prized for food. Cordyline indivisa was still more esteemed 

 for its fibre, which, according to Colenso, was woven into a durable 

 mat called toii, which was dyed black. 



In Europe the cabbage-tree is much prized for horticultural pui- 

 poses, though it is hardy only in the warmer parts. In the Scilly Isles 

 it is used for hedges, making wind-screens to the fields of daffodils, 

 there grown so extensively for the London market. Strange to say, 

 many New Zealand plants, the cabbage-tree amongst the number, 

 OTOW luxuriantly in the Isle of Arran, Scotland, which are only half- 

 hardy farther south : a fact which recalls Stewart Island, where in 

 certain parts trees peculiar to northern Auckland are cultivated 

 with success, but which cannot endure the climate of the Canterbury 

 coast. 



THE NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 



Still more common than the tree just dealt with, and equally 

 well known to all, is the New Zealand flax. This is another misnomer, 

 as popular names usually are, since the species in question is no flax 

 at all, but another member of the lily family, consequently a near 

 relative of the cabbage-tree, the true native flax being a pretty white- 

 flowered herb (Linum monocjynum} common along the sea-coast. 

 Although still extremely abundant, the flax has much diminished in 

 numbers since the advent of the European, for the simple reason that 

 it occupied the very ground most suitable for agriculture. Where the 

 golden grain waves in the breeze, and where the lamb, unconscious of 

 its doom, crops the lush grass, were formerly vast swamps, closely 

 filled with the gigantic sword-like leaves of the plant, beneath whose 

 friendly shelter countless red-legged pukeko sought their food, safe 

 from their dreaded enemy the hawk. 



The genus Phormium, to which the New Zealand flax belongs, is 

 found only in Norfolk Island and New Zealand, and consists of but 

 two species, P. tcnax and P. Cookianum, this latter formerly known 

 as P. Colcnsoi. These are readily distinguished by their ' pods," 

 those of the former species pointing upwards and not twisted, while 

 the latter' s droop downwards and are twisted. Further research may 



