THE PAGE OF NA TUBE. 265 



ferns and other cryptogamia being the sole vegetation. 

 Since then, however, under the protection of the Eng- 

 lish Government, and by the aid of British skill and re- 

 sources, the country has been converted into a luxuriant 

 and fertile garden. The flowerless land can boast of 

 many-coloured gems and delicious fruits amidst the 

 sombre foliage. The soil abundantly rewards the far- 

 mer's toil ; whilst its green swards make it valuable in 

 the graziers' eyes. The present Maori war shows the 

 high appreciation in which the aborigines hold the ad- 

 vantages of civilisation, and the just value they attach to 

 the possessions which they formerly parted with for a 

 mere trifle, and reveals a striking contrast between their 

 present condition and their savage state less than fifty 

 years ago, when they roamed naked through the waste 

 jungles, and fed upon fern roots and fungi, varied too 

 often by a cannibal feast. 



Fungi are to a certain extent capable of artificial 

 propagation, vast quantities of the higher kinds being 

 constantly cultivated for the table. In Italy, a species 

 of Agaric is raised from the grounds of coffee ; and a 

 kind of Polyporus, which is greatly relished, is grown 

 simply by singeing the stumps of cob-nut trees, and 

 placing them in a moist, dark cellar. There is a 

 curious production called the fungus-stone, or Pietra 

 funghaia, supposed to be a species of truffle, but in 

 reality nothing more than the spawn or mycelium of 

 Polyporus tuberaster, traversing masses of earth which 

 it collects about it in a compact form, constantly em- 

 ployed for the propagation of that favourite fungus, 

 whose stem and pileus it readily produces when supplied 

 with the requisite conditions of moisture and tempera- 



