60 Mr William Gorrie on New Zealand Plants 



sustained the least injury from frost, but then many of the 

 branches were so much affected that they had to be 

 shortened or cut out. Of this very interesting plant I have 

 cultivated two varieties, the one having entire leaves, 

 while those of the other are deeply indented or contracted 

 in their middle. 



22. LiBERTiA CxKANDiFLOKA MAJOR. — A very handsome 

 herbaceous evergreen, with stout grassy-like leaves, from 20 

 to 30 inches in length by a third to half an inch in width ; 

 and having spike-like panicles about 3 feet high or pure 

 white showy flowers, that are produced in succession from a 

 month to six weeks. This variety, which I have grown 

 about twelve years, has larger flowers and more compact 

 panicles than that previously in cultivation. Till last 

 winter it grew freely, flowering and seeding abundantly ; 

 but the plants then suffered less or more from the excessive 

 frost, although none were entirely killed, and some even 

 flowered and seeded last summer as profusely as before. 

 The bulky produce of tough leaves which this Lihcrtia yields 

 claim for it the attention of paper-makers ; and as an orna- 

 mental plant for flower borders, shrubberies, or moderately 

 open woodlands, the abundance and pure whiteness of its 

 flowers render it particularly attractive, while if once intro- 

 duced where its self-sown young plants are allowed to grow 

 up, it will maintain a conspicuous existence even among 

 our stronger growing wild flowers. 



23. LiBERTiA ixioiDES. — A pretty white-flowered ever- 

 green herbaceous plant, with more branched inflorescences 

 than the last, and only about a third of its size. Well 

 adapted for growing on rockeries, and perfectly hardy. 



24. CoRDYLiNE AUSTRALis (Cabbage-trec or Grass-tree of 

 the settlers, and Houha or Ti of the Maoris). — In hopes of 

 acquiring hardier forms of this well-known elegant palm- 

 like tree than those usually cultivated in our greenhouses, 

 I, through the kind assistance of Mr James Melvin of 

 Bonnington, Eatho, obtained seeds from its colder habitats 

 in Otago, the plants raised from which grew for six or 

 seven years, sustaining a minimum temperature of 20° 

 without any artificial protection, by which time they at- 

 tained a height of 3 to 4 feet ; but a severe winter then 

 killed them to the ground, with the exception of one, which 



