122 Voyage of the Novara. 



tion. The liarvest-time for this plant is accompanied by a 

 grand festival, and the fields in which the Kumara is grown, 

 as well as the labourers engaged in raising it, were declared 

 by the priests tahoo, or consecrated. Of the varieties of the 

 Kumara, one, the size of a yam-root, is named Kai-paJceha, or 

 ^' white man's food," and is exceedingly palatable. The com- 

 mon potato (Solanum tuberosum) was first brought hither from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, by Captain Cook, who planted it here. 



3. MeLma^vL (Cf/athea 3feduUans), one of the most elegant 

 tree-ferns in the country, wjiose whole stalk, sometimes 20 

 feet high, is edible, and is sufficient to maintain a considerable 

 number of persons. The pith of the Mamaku, when cooked 

 and dried in the sun, is an excellent substitute for sago. 



Fermented liquors, like the Kawa of the South Sea Island- 

 ers, or the Chicha of the Indians of Southern and Central 

 America, seem never to have been known to the New Zea- 

 landers.* The only fruits from which liquors are occasionally 

 prepared are the Tawa (Laiirus Tmva) and those of the Trepa- 

 Kihi [Coriaria Sarmentosa), the latter of which, however, when 

 the stamens of many are mingled together, is apt to be fol- 

 lowed by symptoms of poisoning, resulting in violent convul- 

 sions and death. 



Although their short stay at Auckland, coupled with other 

 indispensable business, did not admit making an adequate 

 number of measurements of the physical proportions of both 



* The sick were formerly made to drink the fluid contained in the shells of fresh 

 and salt water Cotichi/Ua, 



