706 LILIACER. [Cordyline. 
A most abundant plant throughout Polynesia, and stretching northwards 
through Queensland and New Guinea to Malaya and India. I have examined 
the specimens, cultivated in Mr. Reid’s garden at Ahipara, upon which Mr. 
Kirk founded his C. Cheesemanii. They differ in no respect from the common 
Polynesian form of C. terminalis, and as they were found in an abandoned 
Maori cultivation they can only be looked upon as survivors from a period 
when the species was grown by the Maoris for food-purposes. Archdeacon 
Walsh (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiii. 301) mentions other instances of C. terminalis 
having been found in old Maori cultivations, and argues with much probability 
that the plant was originally introduced by the Maoris on their first colonisation 
of New Zealand. 
2. C. Banksii, Hook. f. in Gard. Chron. (1860) 792.—Stems 
slender, simple or sparingly branched, or several from the base 
forming large clumps, 4-10 ft. high. Leaves numerous, very long, 
erect below, drooping towards the tips, 3-6ft. or even more, 
14-34 in. broad at the middle, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, gradu- 
ally contracted into a petiole 1-2ft. long, striate and obliquely 
many-nerved, 4—8 of the nerves on each side of the midrib stronger 
than the rest and either green or. red or yellowish; midrib stout, 
flat above, prominent and rounded beneath; petiole deeply chan- 
nelled above, rounded beneath. -Panicles one or several to each 
stem, suberect or drooping, very large and lax, much and diffusely 
branched, 2-5ft. long. Flowers longer and narrower than in 
C. australis, and not so closely placed, nearly 4in. long, white, 
sessile or nearly so; bracteoles very small. Berry globose, 3 in. 
diam., white. Seeds 2-3 in each cell.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 282; 
Fegel in Gartenfl. t. 344. C. Beuckelaerii, C. Koch, Wochenschr. 
vili. (1865) 91. CC. erythrorhachis, Hort. ex Baker in Journ. Linn. 
Soc. xiv. (1875) 541. C. diffusa, Col. mm Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 
330. 
NortH anpD SoutH Istanps: Abundant from the North Cape to Marl- 
borough, Nelson, and Westland. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Ti-ngahere. No- 
vember—December. 
A very distinct species, easily reccgnised by the large many-nerved leaves 
gradually narrowed into long slender petioles, large lax panicles, and long 
narrow flowers. 
3. C. australis, Hook. f. in Gard. Chron. (1860) 792.— 
Variable in size and habit. Stems of young trees straight, erect, 
unbranched; of mature ones much branched above or more rarely 
from the base, 15-40 ft. high; trunk 1-5 ft. diam.; bark thick, 
rough and fissured. Leaves of young plants scattered along the 
stem, 1-2ft. long, 4-lin. broad; of older plants forming a dense 
round head at the top of the stem or branches, 14-3 ft. long, 
14-24in. broad, ensiform, acute or acuminate, contracted just 
above the broad sheathing base but not petiolate, flat, firm, coria- 
ceous ; midrib indistinct; veins numerous, fine, parallel. Panicles 
terminal, erect or drooping, large, 2-4 ft. long, 1-2 ft. diam., much 
