GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5 



it. They have seen it in early morning, when every 

 tawny thread had its string of clammy mist drops. They 

 have seen it again at midday, a parched and thirsty land, 

 that seemed to be covered with broken yellow wavelets, 

 flying before the fierce squalls of the nor'-wester. They 

 have stumbled through the entangled tufts at night, too tired 

 to lift their feet. They have slept amongst them, tying 

 together adjacent bunches to form a tunnel in which they 

 might be sheltered from the cutting night winds of the plain. 



In many places, particularly near water courses or shingly 

 river beds, the toe-toe (Arundo conspicua) largely replaces the 

 tussock. It is the tallest and most conspicuous grass in the 

 New Zealand Flora. It bears a considerable resemblance to 



Fig. 2 Nigger-heads. 



the magnificent Pampas Grass of the Argentine, now cultivated 

 all over the world. It is not, however, so large or so beautiful 

 as the American grass ; it flowers at a different season, and may 

 readily be distinguished by the more graceful droop of the 

 flowerstalk. The plumes of the pampas grass are taller, 

 straighter, and stiffer than those of the toe- toe. The edges of 

 streams on the tussock-clad plains are often fringed with flax 

 and bulrush, whilst, in the water itself, stand numbers of 

 blackened stumps about two feet high, bearing on their summits 

 drooping brushes of long, coarse, green, or tawny threads. 

 These are termed by the colonists, nigger-heads. 



This plant, (Carex secta) carries out literally the advice of 

 St. Augustine, and makes of its dead-self a stepping stone to 



