52 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
roots fasten this plant very firmly to its support, being given off 
at right angles, or thereabouts, to the stiff climbing-stem, and, 
passing right round the support if slender, finally put forth many 
rootlets, which are parallel, or nearly so, to the main roots, and 
close together. Other root-climbers, one or other of which is 
SE 
On the left a non-climbing shoot of the clinging climbing-rata 
(Metrosideros scandens), and on the right a climbing-shoot. 
[Esmond Atkinson del. 
characteristic of most New Zealand forests, are the various species 
of climbing-ratas. These, when young, cling most closely to the tree- 
trunks by means of numerous short roots, their leaves more or less 
flattened against the bark, but finally, as the stems become cord-like, 
or rope-like, the roots wither away, and the stem is no longer pressed 
against its support. Jor the different species the Maoris had the 
