104 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



themselves, and are all small, herbaceous plants, with delicate, 

 pale-blue petals. But the flax of the New Zealand swamps 

 and hillsides is an entirely different plant. The coarse, dark- 

 green leaves are often six feet or more in length, while its 

 flower-stem occasionally rises to a height of fifteen feet. The 

 finest variety is found by running water, while the plant of 

 the stagnant swamp remains comparatively small. 



The settler is never in want of a piece of twine with a flax 

 bush growing near his home. He has merely to take one of 

 the long leaves, and tear a strip from it, and he holds in his 

 hand a piece of string that it is almost impossible to break. 

 The Phormium fibre is stronger than that of any other flax, but 

 it is also more brittle when twisted. As to the treatment of it 

 by the natives in the early days, we read in " Nicholas's 

 Voyage," (1814), that " the natives, after having cut it down 

 and brought it home green in bundles, scrape it with a large 

 mussel-shell, and take the heart out of it, splitting it with 

 their thumb-nails. The outside they throw away, and spread 

 the rest out in the sun to dry, which makes it as white as 

 snow. They spin it in a double thread, with the hand on the 

 thigh, and then work it into mats, also by hand. Three 

 women may work on one mat at a time." 



This plant was known in England in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century. In the Annual Register of 1819, it was 

 stated that ropes made from the Phormium had been 

 experimented with in the Portsmouth dockyards, and found to 

 stand the test. The ropes were said to be strong, pliable, and 

 very silky. 



A Maori named Tupai visited England in the time of 

 George III., and was amused to see a plant of flax growing 

 in a pot under glass. It is said to have been cultivated in the 

 open by a Frenchman of the name of Freycinet, in 1813, when 

 it grew to a height of six feet, and bore a large spike of 

 flowers. It seems also to have been, a little later, successfully 

 cultivated in the British Isles, and to have ripened seeds as 



