26 A LETTER FROM MAORI-LAND. 



tion, and were it not that the home plants are so familiar and 

 well known to us, we should certainly pass them over almost 

 unnoticed in favour of the quaint and curious natives. Nothing 

 could, for instance, be more pleasing and attractive to the eye 

 than the bold outline of a hillside against the sky, crowned with a 

 feathery ridge of the graceful cabbage-tree {Cordyline Banksii). 

 This curious tree is to our mind the perfection of gracefulness. 

 The trunk is slender and clean, and rises straight upwards for from 

 lo to 15 feet, though many trees attain much larger dimensions ; 

 it then strikes into several equal short branches, which in their 

 turn again equally subdivide; each branch bears a clump of 

 strong, rush-like leaves, which expand in all directions. Occasion- 

 ally, several trunks spring from one root, but more commonly 

 there is one stem only. The blossoms appear about December, 

 and being very full of nectar prove a great attraction to various 

 birds and insects. Several species of this genus are found in 

 Australia, and are popularly known as "lily palms." The general 

 appearance of the New Zealand cabbage-tree reminds us of the 

 common Australian screw-pine, Pandaniis pedunculatus (R. Brown), 

 the generic name of which is derived from a Malay word, meaning 

 " conspicuous." 



The New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax, is a very useful 

 plant, and forms quite a feature in our New Zealand scenery, and 

 takes a high place as an article of commercial value ; it is only 

 found in New Zealand, and grows freely in all localities. The 

 plants of flax generally grow in clusters or groups, and sometimes 

 large stretches of land are densely covered with them. In 

 appearance they are like huge flags ; the long, broad, grass-like 

 leaves making the plant very conspicuous. The flowers are pro- 

 duced on long stalks, not unlike those of the aloe, and are so full 

 of nectar, as quite to overflow with it, and the natives used for- 

 merly to collect the sweet secretion as an article of food. We do 

 not remember to have seen any plant which can at all compare 

 with the Phormium in the abundance of this secretion. The 

 great value of the Phormium tenax consists in its being a fibre 

 producer. The leaves are excessively strong, and are very largely 

 used for making the fibre known in commerce as New Zealand 

 flax. The Maori have long used the leaves for a great variety of 



