THE LEAF-FIBRE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 41 
seribe it as secreted by the base of the leaf (or leaf-sheath), and it was 
certainly there that I found it myself in any quantity. The gum in 
question resembles gum arabie in some of its properties, and as a 
substitute, therefore, it is used by the settlers. 
It becomes invested with a high degree of interest in connection 
with the preparation of the flax fibre; for to it all testimony has 
hitherto coneurred in ascribing the main difficulty in the separation 
and utilization of the latter. This gum also bears the reputation, in 
some parts of the colony, of being poisonous to cattle.* ere the 
New Zealand Flax plant extensively cultivated for the sake of its fibre, 
it is probable this gum might be separated and utilized. 
The flowers secrete a watery honey, a familiar dainty of the settlers 
of all ages, of some of which I have frequently partaken while wading 
in the flax-jungles of Otago. On the first evolution of the flower, the 
large tubular perianth is found full to the brim of a clear, sweet fluid ; 
at the same time the anthers are most copiously discharging their 
pollen,—so that the faces of the juveniles or adults who drain the 
flower-cups by direct application of their lips, generally bear the marks 
of that procedure in the yellow pollen-dust which adheres to their 
eyebrows, or besmears their faces. The plant contains 1 to 1} 
per cent. of Grape sugar, as well as a pure intense bitter principle ; 
and these, when a strong infusion is subjected to fermentation (addi- 
tioual repr being supplied) with yeast, yield a kind of bitter beer 
(Skey).t cases ie the same chemist further suggests, 
might m as a substitute for hops in communicating a bitter fla- 
vour to ordinary : 
The root is said to be purgutive, diuretic, sudorifie, expectorant, and 
to possess the properties of sarsaparilla (Buchanan). So lately as 
December, 1862, I find it recorded in the * Tarawaki Herald,’ that for 
a virulent epidemie of smallpox at Kawhia on the west coast of 
Auckland, and Mokan in Taranaki, the native doctors were using with 
success an ointment made by boiling the root-ends of flax leaves to a 
pulp. The seeds, also, are said to have been used medicinally by the 
natives. 
y paper on “The Toot Plant ed veg of New Zealand,” Brit. 
* Videm 
and sel Medieo-Chi irurg. Review, July, 1 
+ Jurors’ Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, p. 433. 
bid. 
