NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 75 



tures, as it is neither employed in religious or 

 other ceremonies. It grows principally in moist, 

 marshy soil, but I have also observed it growing 

 on the declivities of hills. The leaves are 

 ensiform, of a bright green colour, with a rim of 

 orange along the margin : the foliage attains 

 the elevation of five to seven feet,- and resembles 

 in mode of growth our water flags : the flower 

 stalk rises to the elevation of four or five feet 

 beyond the foliage, and bears a profusion of 

 liliaceous flowers of a reddish yellow colour, 

 succeeded by triangular capsules, filled with 

 numerous oblong, flattened, black seeds. The 

 leaves grow perfectly erect, but are figured in- 

 correctly in Cook's first voyage, and other 

 works, as they are delineated bending towards 

 the ground, which from their rigidity they are, 

 unless broken, unable to do. The flax procured 

 from this plant is situated (unlike all other 

 kinds with which we are acquainted) in the 

 leaves, where the fibres run in a longitudinal 

 direction, covered by the epidermis. There are 

 several varieties of it indigenous to New Zea- 

 land, from some of which the flax is procured 

 of much finer quality than others. I collected 

 much finer specimens of the flax from the vici- 

 nity of the River Thames, New Zealand, than 

 from the Bay of Islands. 



