720 THE FLORA OF NORFOLK LSLAND, 



period of their history. The Pitcairners brought this plant to 

 Norfolk Island in a box, as indeed they did many others, and I 

 believe ni}' informant is quite correct in this respect, as his wife 

 is a native of Pitcairn, and the circumstances are quite clear to 

 him. 



125. Phormium tenax, Forst., Endl., Prod.Norf. 65. 



This, next to the Araucaria excelsa, useful for spars, is the 

 plant considered by Governor Phillip and the Home authorities 

 to be the most important economic plant on Norfolk Island, as 

 the provision of cordage for H.M. Navy was a most important 

 matter. 



Following are Lieut. -Govr. King's instructions in regard to 

 this plant : — 



'•You are immediately to proceed to the cultivation of the flax-plant, 

 which you will find growing spontaneously on the Island." (Hist. Eec. 

 N.S.W. Vol. i. pt. 2, 1.30). 



King replied {ib. 126) that the cultivation would be attended 

 to when people could be sent to clear the ground. 



"We found our road must be down ye hill, which is perpendicular and 

 quite full of a large kind of iris, which was a providential circumstance for 

 us, as they served us to hold by when we were all falling, and had they not 

 presented themselves, we must have fell down a depth of 90 feet." (Lieut.- 

 Govr. King, in March, 1788, in Hist. Rec. N.S.W. Vol. ii. p. 55'?.) 



Its natural habitat on the Island is the sides of steep banks or 

 cliffs. Under date 17th of the same month (they had only just 

 arrived on the Island), he states, {ih. p. 557) : — 



" This day I discovered that ye flax-plant, which Capt. Cook takes notice 

 of, is no other than that plant which I have hitherto called ye larger kind of 

 iris, with which ye Isle abounds, but it in no manner resembles ye flax of 

 Europe, its appearance being more like flags. A bundle of it was tied up 

 and put into a pool of water to soak intending to try it after ye European 

 method of preparing ye flax." 



Following was the first attempt to manufacture it : — 



" On the 29th I found that 30 bundles of flax, put into soak in October, 

 was sufficiently rotted to pass it thro' the hackle; broke off 4 men to clean 

 it. ... I mean to let it stay 3 days longer in the water, and to make 



