86 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Wharekauri. 



Hope taone (Hobart Town). 



Parakaraka : No longer grown here. 



Kotuku-tahiti. 



Hua mango. 



The fruit of the potato (potato apples) are termed takuru. 

 Potatoes growing from these seeds are termed monemone, on 

 account of their smoothness, the indentations being small. 

 The takuru of the Maori variety only were considered fit to 

 eat. 



The potato-crop is taken up in the month Pou-tu-te-rangi 

 (about March). If left too late they deteriorate, in which state 

 they are termed tauhere or kopura* New potatoes are termed 

 tamahou, and old ones of last season are styled pukeko. Self- 

 sown potatoes are termed patohe, but are sometimes styled 

 piicai, from a word which describes rooting up an old cultiva- 

 tion with a tvauivau in search of self-grown potatoes. The 

 ivamvau is a wooden implement used for rooting up fern-root, 

 &c, and for loosening earth in fort-building. Some varieties 

 of potatoes reproduce themselves for ma,ny years. When 

 camped at Nga-putahi some time back I used to obtain my 

 supplies of potatoes by turning up the soil in an old potato- 

 ground all grown up in bush and scrub. It had been a culti- 

 vation of one Koura, and has been abandoned for many years. 

 Observe : — 



Koura 



Mohi 



Te Mauniko (living, an elderly woman) 



Ripeka 



I 

 Nuku. 



This was the famous Koura, whose hand lay heavy upon the 

 Pu Taewa and the Tiaki Tutu, or descendants of Tionga. 



These people had a novel method of cleaning potatoes 

 before the pipi shell came into use for that purpose. This was 

 the korua hukari kai. A hole was dug in the ground and lined 

 with bark. The potatoes were poured into this hole, and 

 upon them was thrown a kind of sand termed tenga kakariki 

 (from its resemblance to the inside of the crop of a parroquet). 

 Then the ladies passed into the hole and trampled the potatoes 

 with their bare feet ; the friction caused by the trampling, 

 helped by the action of the sand, rubbed the skin off the pota- 

 toes, which were then washed and cooked. 



* Eumara left in ground too long before being dug are termed hou- 

 hunga. They will not keep, but are eaten at once. 



