46 THE LEAF-FIBRE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 
native-made baskets are in great demand among the settlers. About 
Auckland I saw them constantly in use for the conveyance of fruit and 
vegetables, especially of the peaches,* which are there so common in 
Maori eultivations. The generic name of the New Zealand Flax 
lant—'* Phormium "—1is said to be derived from this economical 
application of its leaf, viz. $oppós, a wicker basket, but the same term 
signifies also a mat, and a seaman's cloak made of coarse plaited stuff ; 
so that, as regards the economical applications of the plant produets, the 
generie name seems to have been appropriately chosen. 
'The dried flowering stem is not only largely used both by settlers 
and Maoris for walking-sticks (I have so used it myself), but 
it was at one time commonly used by the Maoris in the construction 
of rafts,—known to the South Island native as * mokihi’’+ (Haast),— 
especially in localities where large forest-timber for canoe eonstruction 
was absent. [n the Chatham Islands, where there is now no such 
timber, flax-stems are still so used, lashed together by thongs of flax- 
leaf or by “ bush-ropes" f of some kind. Rafts, or canoes, or 
* eatamarans," are still occasionally improvised by travellers or ex- 
plorers in primitive parts of New Zealand, e. 7. by Haast, who reports 
constructing * catamarans” of dead trees when flax-sticks were not 
obtainable. The same dried flowering stems are still employed by the 
Qtago Maoris in the construction of eel-pots (** punga ”) for snaring 
eels in the larger rivers. I remember accompanying my friend Mr. 
Shaw, of Finegand, to a Maori village on the lower Chithe, for the 
purpose of giving an order for the construction of a couple of ecl-pots. 
The wooden war-clubs of the Maoris were occasionally ornamented 
with dyed flax. The essential feature of the “taupe” mat was flax 
strips, dyed, but not otherwise prepared; it was held in great estima- 
tion as being quite impervious to rain. 
A gummy or gluey matter pervades the plant,—most abundant, 
however, at certain times and in certain parts. It exudes naturally 
from the cut leaves, and is also artificially separable. The settlers de- 
* Ripe in February, 1862; the usual substitute there for apples in tarts and 
ws. 
+ Williams defines “ moki” (or * * mokihi,” East Cape dialect), as a “ canoe 
made of ‘ flags’ or ‘rushes’ r 80 that ot] other materials than flax-sticks A Sarm” 
their exact character does not h used 
in thei ———— 
f Clim reise iene forest trees ; C((—X Parsonsia, | 
Rubus, Pleyianthus, Metrosideros, Clematis. f 
* 
ft” 
