BY J. H. MAIDEN. 7l9 



Mr. J. G. Baker, who first cleared up the matter,* correctly gives 

 the locality " Insula Norfolk (sed non Nova Zelandia nee Nova 

 Hollandia ut auctores dicunt)." 



The Islanders call it -'Rau-ti" or Palm, this being the usual 

 name for a Draccena. 



". . . . a Norfolk Island Bread-fruit, Cordyline an-^tralis, 2 feet 9 

 inches. The last sometimes attains 20 feet in height (I have seen it higher. 

 — J.H.M.); it branches from within a few feet of the ground, and forms 

 several heads, with flag-like leaves, and long, branched spikes of greenish, 

 star flowers, succeeded by whitish, or bluish-purple berries, that are eaten by 

 parrots. It often forms a striking object, where a woody vtilley runs out into 

 grass, growing at the extreme margin of the wood" (Backhouse, 271). 



In a manuscript in my possession, and also in Downing {op. ciL), 

 it is referred to as Charhuoodiaf avstralis. 



124. Cordyline terminalis, Kunth, var. cmmcefolia, J. G. 

 Baker, op. cit., p. 541 : C. caniuefolia, R.Br. 



'■^Cordyline canncefoUa, R.Br., Prod. v. 1., p. 280. On the dry grassy 

 sides of the hills immediately above the military officers' gardens " (A. Cunn. 

 in Reward). 



On Norfolk Island it is known as the "Pitcairn or Home 

 Rau-ti" ("home" being the word for Pitcairn amongst the Pit- 

 cairn Islanders and their descendants). 



According to Allan Cunningham it was apparently not scarce 

 on the Island in 1830. Although I made careful search, I found 

 only one plant of it (it certainl}^ is rare), and that was in a 

 garden at Steel's Point. I was distinctly told that the Pitcairners 

 brought this plant to Norfolk Island, and m}^ informant reminded 

 me that the sweet root was formerly used in Pitcairn to prepare 

 an ardent spirit. In the face of Cunningham's statement I, 

 of course, admit it as a Norfolk Island indigene, but it 

 would appear to have been exterminated, perhaps because the 

 convicts turned it into a curse, as the Pitcairners did at an early 



* "Revision of the Genera and Species of Asparagaceje. " Journ. Linn. 

 Soc. Bot. xiv. 543. 



t Sweet's Charlwoodia; see his Flora Australasica, t. 18. His Charlwoodia 

 congesta, figured there, is our Cordyline stricfa, Endl. 



