256 FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. [Ziliacee. 
inner spreading at the tip. Stamens six, exserted. Fruit a long bluntly triangular capsule, three-valved ; valves 
membranous or coriaceous, black, more or less twisted or straight. Seeds very numerous in each cell, two-rowed, 
flattened, with a loose black testa. (Name, poppov, a basket, from the use the leaves are put to.) 
1. Phormium tenaz, Forst. Char. Gen. t. 24. Prodr. Endl. Prodr. Fl. Ins. Norf. A. Rich. Fi. 
A. Cunn. Prodr. Lachenalia ramosa, Lamarck, Encycl. Méh. 
Var. a; elata, foliis 3-6-pedalibus, scapo 6-16-pedali, floribus majoribus luteis v. sanguineis.— 
P. tenax, Forst. Prodr. Endl. Prodr. Bot. Mag. t. 3199. P. Forsterianum, Colenso in Loud. Journ. 
Bot. v. 3. p. 8. P. Cookianum, Le Jolis, Mém. sur le Lin de la Nouvelle Zélande. Redouté, Liliacee, 
1.448, 449. Chlamydea tenacissima, a sanguinea, Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. 
Var. 8; humilior, foliis 2—3-pedalibus, scapo 8-6-pedali, floribus minoribus pallide stramineis luteisve 
virescentibus sanguinolentibusve. P. tenax, Ze Jolis, Mém. P. Colensoi, Nob. MSS. in Raoul En. Plant. 
(Choix des Plantes.) Chlamydea tenacissima, £ pallens, Banks et Sol. MSS, et Ic. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands, as far south as lat. 46° 30'. Var. a, Bay of Islands, etc. ; var. £, 
Southern parts of the Island. Nat. name, “ Harakeke,” Col. (Cultivated in England.) 
There are two, and perhaps many more, varieties of this celebrated plant, which have given rise to some dis- 
cussion between Mr. Colenso, M. Le Jolis of Cherbourg, and myself; and which, after much examination, with Mr. 
Brown and Mr. Bennett, who have kindly given me their assistance and opinions, I have (in conformity with their 
views) considered as one species. This was the conclusion arrived at by Banks and Solander, who discovered the 
plant, examined it at several points along the coast, and made admirable drawings and full descriptions of both 
states. The var. 8 was discovered, drawn, and described in Poverty Bay, October 9th, 1769 ; there are no data 
showing when var. a was first gathered, but it was drawn and described at Totara-nui, January 15th, and again 
on February 5th, 1770. Of var. a it is said, that the leaves are brighter green above, glaucous below, scapes red- 
purple, outer sepals deep orange (though figured as red-purple), inner yellow at the base; the pod variable in 
size, often a span long and twisted. Var. (9 again is described as a smaller plant, with paler leaves, more slender 
flowers (14 inch long); the outer sepals are yellow with a red blush, inner paler, striped with green. Forster, 
who first published Phormium tenax, collected it at Queen Charlotte’s Sound, on November 17, 1778, and his 
figures (in Mus. Brit.) represent Banks and Solander’s var. a, for which the name ¢exaz must be retained. I 
gathered the var. a abundantly, at the Bay of Islands, in 1842, and Mr. Colenso showed me var. | in his garden: 
it looked a most distinct plant, and I proposed that it should bear his name, but have since abandoned the idea of 
its being specifically distinct for many reasons; being influenced, firstly, by the views of Banks and Solander, who 
paid particular attention to this very point, gathered the plants repeatedly and at many places, and who in this, 
and in all other cases, did nothing imperfectly ; secondly, by Mr. Brown’s and Mr. Bennett's opinion, which will, 
by all botanists, be thought conclusive ; thirdly, by the differences between a and 8 being far within the usual limits 
of variation amongst Liliacee ; although, owing to the size of the plant, they are peculiarly conspicuous, and have 
hence had undue importance attached to them: I must remind the student, however, that a Botanist alone can 
appreciate this argument. Lastly, I find variations in the size and colour of all parts of the cultivated plants of 
Phormium in Europe, and none agree with Banks and Solander’s, Forster’s, or my own wild specimens. With 
regard to the cultivated individuals, that described by M. Le Jolis as Cookianum grew from seeds gathered in lat. 
46° 30' S.: it agrees with Banks’s var. 8 in its size, and the colour of the foliage and stem, but differs in the green 
inner sepals, and dark blood-red outer ones: it is described as having long twisted capsules.—M. Decaisne states, 
that the plant which flowered at the Jardin des Plantes had large yellow flowers; and such is the case with those 
figured in the “Botanical Magazine, in Redouté, and in Miller’s Icones Plantarum. In a drawing shown me by 
Mr. Brown, the Norfolk Island plant is represented with large yellow flowers; it is undoubtedly a native of that 
island, having been observed there during Cook’s voyage. It remains to be mentioned, that the flax produced in 
the southern parts of the Northern Island of New Zealand is stated to be of much finer quality than that yielded 
by the larger red-flowered Bay of Islands plant. The roots are said to be purgative. 
