Corenso.— Botany of the North Island of New Zealand. 267 
of mataii and manuka woods. The spines of the tumatakuru, or New 
Zealand thorn (Discaria toumatou), were sometimes used for tattooing, 
though instruments of bone were preferred; the black pigment for the 
same operation being obtained from the soot of old and hard kapia or kauri 
resin, dug out of the earth; and also from the ashes of the curious vegeto- 
caterpillar fungus, the hawhato (Cordiceps robertsii), which was sometimes 
mixed with the black juice of the mahoe- berry (Melicytus ramiflorus). 
Flutes were made of the woody stems of the kohoho or poroporo (Solanum 
aviculare), and of the tupakihi or tutu (Coriaria ruscifolia). Ornamental 
boxes for holding feathers, &c., with their covers, were generally carved out 
of mataii wood; and flying-kites were very ingeniously made of the toetoe 
(Cyperus ustulatus). After the introduction of flint and steel the pith of 
the flowering stems of the New Zealand flax served for tinder, and so did 
the putawa, a fungus (Boletus) of enormously large growth, often found on 
the upper branches of the tawhairaunui (Fagus ? fusca). On the New 
Zealanders learning to write, they used the juice of the root of the New 
Zealand flax as ink; the crimson juice of the berry of the kokihi (a species 
of Tetragonia—T. trigyna), and the dark juice of the berries of Schefflera 
digitata, were also used for the same purpose. Sometimes they used a 
green leaf of New Zealand flax for writing on, etching on it with a nail or 
style of hard wood, thus unknowingly imitating their Asiatie neighbours. 
It is highly doubtful whether the New Zealanders ever used any vegetable 
as an internal medicine before their intercourse with Europeans ; for severe 
burns, however, they applied outwardly the ashes and charcoal dust of burnt 
fern fronds (Pteris esculenta), and the fine reddish dust of the large decay- 
ing fungus pukurau (Lycoperdon fontainesii). The blanched bases of the 
leaves of the harakeke (Phormium), and the roots of the rengarenga or 
maikaika (Arthropodium cirrhatum), were sometimes roasted and beaten to a 
pulp and applied warm to unbroken tumours and abscesses. As a cataplasm 
for ulcers they used the leaves of the kohoho or poroporo (Solanum aviculare), 
and for wounds and old ulcerated sores they used the large leaves of the 
pukapuka or rangiora (Brachyglottis repanda), and also the hune, or pappus 
down of the large bulrush, but merely as a protection against dust, &e. 
Layers of dry totara bark, and the lower parts of stout green flax leaves, 
served admirably as splints in eases of broken bones, the New Zealanders 
being far better surgeons than physieians. And the leaves of several par- 
tieular plants were in request for their rude steam or vapour baths for 
rheumatie and other stubborn and chronie complaints; but it is highly 
questionable whether the benefit derived from such baths did not arise 
entirely from the warm vapour. They sometimes rubbed the fresh juice of 
the ngaio (Afyoporum letum) over their skin, to keep off the persecuting namu 
