2 
loosely woven baskets, which were placed in running water. and occasionally shaken, 
so as to remove the skin, pulp, &c. The seeds were then dried in the sun, and finally 
packed away for future use. When required, they were steamed in an earth oven, 
which rendered them softer and more easily eaten. According to Mr. Colenso, 
every autumn the Maoris removed in large numbers—men, women, and children— 
to the karaka woods on the sea-coast for the purpose of collecting the seeds and 
preparing them as indicated above. “As an article of vegetable food they were 
greatly and universally esteemed by the Maoris, and were very wholesome.” 
The poisonous qualities of the karaka were investigated by Mr. W. Skey in 
1872 (Trans. N.Z. Inst. iv, 316). He succeeded in isolating a white, bitter substance, 
to which he gave the name of karakine ; but the quantity obtained was too minute 
to admit of complete examination, and hence his results could only be regarded 
as provisional. More recently Professor Easterfield and Mr. B. C. Aston have 
re-examined the seeds, and have succeeded in preparing a sufficient amount of kara- 
kine to become acquainted with its chief properties, and to prove that it must 
be regarded as a glucoside, allied in several respect to the amygdaline of bitter 
almonds, and, like it, capable of yielding prussic acid when decomposed (Trans. 
N.Z. Inst. xxxiv (1902), pp. 495 and 566). 
According to Maori tradition, the karaka was introduced into New Zealand 
from Hawaiki by some of the first Maori immigrants. Several of these legends 
are so precise in their details as to give not only the name of the canoe 
which conveyed the plant, but also the names of many of the crew and of the 
localities where the plant was first cultivated. Similar and equally well-defined 
traditions are also current among the Morioris of the Chatham Islands. But the 
same statements are also made respecting Clianthus puniceus, Coprosma Bauert, 
Pomaderris apetala, and other plants; and in addition certain birds, such as the 
pukeko (Porphyrio melanotus) and the parakeets (Platycercus nove -zealandie 
and P. auriceps), are also said to have been conveyed from Hawaiki. However 
interesting these stories may be from an ethnographical point of view, they cannot 
be taken seriously. Not one of the plants mentioned above is known to be a native 
of any part of Polynesia; and, so far as the karaka is concerned, not a tittle of evi- 
dence can be drawn from its present distribution in New Zealand to support the view 
that it is an introduction from abroad. It was certainly planted by the Maoris 
about their villages, particularly near the coast, and remnants of groves that 
originated in that manner can still be seen in many localities ; but such cultivation 
is no proof of the foreign origin of the plant. 
Prater 29. Corynocarpus levigata, drawn from specimens obtained in the vicinity of Auckland. 
Fig. 1, portion of inflorescence (x 3); 2, flower laid open (x5); 3, petal, with stamen (x 5); 
4, stamen (x 5); 5 and 6, front and back view of staminodia (x 5); 7, ovary, with style and stigma 
(x 5); 8, section of ovary (x5); not numbered, fruit (natural size); 9 and 10, seed surrounded by 
endocarp (natural size); 11, embryo (natural size). 
