I'TI 



92 



THE ART ALBUM OF NEW ZEALAND FLORA. 



are protlucod at tlio ends of the In'anches. The leaves of the Tauhinu are small, leathery, 

 and liave a peculiar rolled form, the margins curling- hack to the mid rih, whilst the 

 surface is deeply grooved down the middle. This plant is common in Tasmania. Its 

 specific name is due to the heath-like appearance of its foliage. 



4. POMADERRIS TAINUI {Hector.) The Tainui Pomaderris. 



Specific Character. — A small, slirubby tree, 20 ft.. 

 hii:;b, with numerous irregular branches; smooth, brownish- 

 prey bark. Young branches and under side of leaves covered 

 with white stellate tomentum ; leaves, 2— t in. lonj^, elliptic- 

 oblong, obtuse at both ends, irregularly erenulate, glabrous 

 and dark-green on the upper surface, witU distant stellate 

 bases on young leaves, principal veins very prominent, buff 



coloured. Flowers small, in open thyrsoid panicles, leafy at 

 the base, buds nearly globular; calyx, about \^ lines long, 

 with stellate leaves, the tube being very sliort. Petals, none. 

 Anthers tipped by a small gland ; styles divided to the middle, 

 with club-shaped, almost capitate, stigmas ; capsule not seen. 

 — Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 

 1878, Vol. Xr., p. 428. 



Description, etc. — This small tree is a very local plant, heing confined to about an 

 acre of ground on a spur of the low sandy hills that extend along the coast, between the 

 Mokou and the Mohakatina Rivers, on the West Coast of the Northern Island. It Avas . 

 first discovered by Sir James Hector, in 1878, during a visit to the Mokau District, under 

 circumstances of much interest, the story of which is l)est told in his own words, as 

 rendered to a meeting of the members of the Wellington Philosojjhical Society, in 

 January, 1879: — "The peculiar habit of the tree," he remarked, "first attracted my 

 attention, having resemblance to a clump of ajiple trees, so that, at first glance, I thought 

 it to be an old orchard or cultivation. I afterwards was much interested in hearing from 

 the Natives that a ^Jeculiar tree was growing on the spot where their ancestors first 

 camped when they abandoned the Tainvii canoe, in which they came from Hawaiki, and 

 that this tree had sprung from the rollers or skids and the green boughs that were 

 brought as flooring to the great canoe. On my doubting this, they offered to take me to 

 the 2>lace, and if I could not recognise the tree as being found elsewhere in New Zealand, 

 they would consider it as proof that the tradition was correct. To my surprise they took 

 me to the clump of trees I had jn'eviously observed ; and, as it is certainly quite distinct 

 from any plant hitherto described from New Zealand, the tradition receives a certain 

 amount of confirmation ; and I need hardly point out that, if it were true — and we could 

 hereafter determine the original habitat of this ^ree — it might give us a clue to the 

 whereabouts of the mythical Hawaiki, or the i)lace whence the Maori originally emigrated 

 to New Zealand." The botanical description of this plant points to its close alliance to 

 Pomaderris apetala, a native of Australia and Tasmania. Its specific name is accorded 

 to it by the discoverer in honour of the great canoe, and as that by which it is known to 

 the Maoris. 



