Best. — Maori Forest Lore. 231 



I have obtained no satisfactory name locally for Eugenia 

 maire. One Native gave puka as the name thereof, but the 

 statement is unsupported, and I have little faith in it. Another 

 gave tu-huhi, which is very unsatisfactory, and might be ap- 

 plied to any swamp -growing tree. Such tree or plant names 

 as the latter, and tu-repo, tu-tahuna, tu-tawai, tu-pari, piripiri, 

 piri-pari, piri-noa, &c, are objects of my deepest scorn. They 

 appear to be employed by Natives who do not know the proper 

 names of such plants, &c. It is quite easy to call a plant that 

 grows on cliffs a " cliff-grower," but that is not necessarily the 

 proper name of it. In the north the Natives call the above 

 tree maire-tawhake, and Mr. J. B. Lee obtained ivhakoukou as 

 a name for it, while Dr. Hector gives whawhakou. 



A kind of sandal or galligaskin was made from the tumatakuru 

 {Aciphylla squarrosa) plant by the Tuhoe Natives in former 

 times. Several kinds of sandals or buskins were made and used 

 in winter-time, when crossing the high ranges of the interior, 

 which were often snow-covered. Tuhoe have traditions of several 

 parties of travellers which were snowed up on those ranges 

 and perished miserably in past times. When Hape-nui, some 

 generations ago, started to cross the Huia-rau Range, then 

 deeply covered with snow, the folk of Rua-tahuna tried to dis- 

 suade him from the attempt. But Hape declined to stay, say- 

 ing, " He riri awatea" Even so he perished. Paerau, of Rua- 

 tahuna, crossed the same range at a time when the summit at 

 Te Whakairinga was very deeply covered with snow. He 

 marked the depth of snow by cutting a notch in a tree, which 

 mark was pointed out to travellers for many years after. 



The toheraoa plant is said to be so called because if a portion 

 of the seed-head gets into food it will choke a person. Deaths 

 have so occurred. 



The tuokura (Dicksonia lanata) appears to be known as 

 tuokura among other tribes. When Te Kahu-o-te-rangi, of the 

 Wai-roa district, East Coast, visited Ngati-Apa, of Galatea, he 

 took as a wife one Taratara of the latter people. Their nuptial 

 couch was composed of fronds of tuokura. When Te Kahu re- 

 turned home he left his new wife behind, saying, " Ki te tvhanau 

 to tamaiti he tane, tapaina ki te kahu o te rangi. Ki te whanau 

 he wahine, tapaina ki te rake o tuokura " (If your child be born 

 a male, name it after the hawk of the heavens [his own name] ; if 

 born a female, then name it after the rake o tuokura). The 

 term rake is applied to high exposed range-tops where few large 

 trees are seen, but only scrub and very hardy plants and ferns, 

 such as the tuokura. 



The name waiu-atua is applied to several species in different 

 ■districts, for which see Cheeseman's " New Zealand Flora," 



