306 Tr ansae tions. — Bo tany. 



nificant value beside the easily acquired delicacies of the 

 pakeha. 



But what would be hardly worth troubling about under 

 one set of circumstances might be extremely valuable under 

 another ; and it is quite conceivable that an article of food 

 which would be comparatively valueless once the Maoris had 

 become possessed of the potato, of wheat and maize, of the 

 pumpkin and vegetable-marrow, and had the means of pur- 

 chasing biscuit and flour and sugar and tobacco, would be 

 worth cultivating at the cost of any trouble at a period when 

 the list of garden produce was limited to the smaller varieties 

 ■of the kumara and taro (taro Maori), the tasteless hue and 

 the " greens " mentioned by the early navigators, and when 

 the supply of vegetable food had to be eked out with the fern- 

 root and other wild edibles of the bush. I think, therefore, 

 that, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we may 

 safely conclude that Mr. Cheeseman's theory is the correct 

 one, and that the plant was brought by the Maoris in pre- 

 historic times, and that most probably the introduction took 

 place on their original immigration to the country.' 1 -' 



Abt. XXXII. — Notes on the Cultivated Food-plants of the 

 Polynesians, with Special Reference to the Ti Pore 

 (Gordyline terminalis). 



By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 9th July, 1900.] 



I think the Institute is indebted to the Bev. Canon Walsh for 

 the trouble he has taken in preparing his paper,! and in collect- 

 ing evidence proving the former cultivation by the Maoris of 

 the Ti pore, or Gordyline terminalis. I have no doubt what- 

 ever that he is perfectly correct in the conclusions he has 

 arrived at — that the Ti pore was introduced by the Maoris 

 when they first colonised New Zealand many generations ago, 

 and to a limited extent was cultivated by them until the 

 commencement of European settlement, but in the extreme 

 northern portion of New Zealand only. As the subject is 

 an interesting one, I am desirous of advancing some con- 

 siderations respecting it which appear worthy of notice. 



* See C Bp., ti tawhiti, Hooker's Handbook of N.Z. Flora, p. 743 

 (Hector, 1865). 



f See above, p. 301. 



