212 Transactions. 



of the sweet potato. It was cooked in a steam -oven for about 

 forty-eight hours, the hard outside part of the trunk having 

 first been hewn off. This and other species of fern-trees are 

 remarkable for the great variety of the epiphvtes which thev 

 bear, ranging from the most minute plants (ferns, mosses, &c.) 

 to forest-trees such as the puahou and tawhero. The two latter 

 are very frequently met with under such conditions, sending 

 roots down the stem of the fern-tree to the ground. Some 

 specimens of wheki and kaponga seem to have their stems en- 

 closed within a network of such roots. The harder stems of the 

 mamaku support a large number of smaller epiphytes, as ferns 

 and Astelia. Many of the puahou (Panax arboreum) so growing- 

 are very handsome specimens of their kind, but yield in pic- 

 turesqueness to a very fine specimen growing on the top of the 

 dead stump of a forest-tree, some 20 ft. in height, and which 

 stands in open ground at Mingi-nui. 



The wheki (Dicksonia squarrosa) is very common in some 

 parts, and is much used in the construction of rude huts by the 

 Natives. In this species one often sees the young plants of 

 the same growing on the stems of the mature specimens though 

 they do not seem to attain any size under such conditions, or 

 to develop into branches. Trunks of the wheki cut and laid on 

 the surface of the ground often put forth new fronds and flourish 

 for some time. This species is termed ti-raiva by the Ngati- 

 Awa Tribe, and a hut the walls of which are formed by such 

 trunks is known as a whare tirawa. It is much used in the 

 construction of cooking-sheds. The tuokura (Dicksonia lanata) 

 is found on the high ranges. 



The punui (Dicksonia fibrosa) is very common in the high- 

 lying districts of Tuhoeland. With its thick stem and short 

 rigid fronds it cannot be termed a handsome species. Some 

 of the trunks are of great size. The Natives hew off wide slabs 

 of the fibrous matter and utilise them in the building of food- 

 stores. This material is durable, and is a bai to rats, which 

 do not seem able to gnaw through it. 



The karaka tree concerns us little, as it never obtained in 

 Tuhoeland, except a few planted in former times on the northern 

 frontier, as at Rua-toki. Natives say that seeds of the karaka 

 were brought to the Bay of Plenty district in the "Nukutere" 

 canoe. 



The kanunuraiuu is remarkable for having entered largely 

 into the sacerdotal rites of the Maori in former days, a wand of 

 this small tree being used by priests in various ways, and rude 

 girdles or aprons made of its leafy branehlets worn bv them 

 when the sacredness of their duties prevented them retaining 

 any of their clothing. 



