Hav tain.—On the Growth of Phormium tenax. 359 
a fresh growth of from four to six leaves within a twelvemonth ; and they 
found that there was no constant difference of strength and quantity of the 
fibre procured from the various leaves of the same plant ; but they were not 
able to determine what was the normal rate of growth of leaves in uncut 
plants, nor when each leaf had arrived at maturity. The opinions of 
manufacturers varied very considerably on these points—some supposing that 
the leaf required several years to reach its full growth, at all events that it did 
not commence to decay until it had remained for a long time in a state fit for 
manufacture. 
For the purpose of settling this question, in the month of May, 1871, 
thirteen months ago, I marked the young centre leaves just shooting up in a 
number of the plants at St. John’s College, and found that by September, 
during the four winter months of the year, in every instance at least one fresh 
leaf had made its appearance and taken the others’ place, and in November, 
two months afterwards, these had again been replaced by fresh leaves, I 
found a more rapid growth in the summer months, so that in the course of the 
year generally six, or at least five, fresh leaves had been produced in every 
instance. I have two of the fans that I marked in this manner. One leaf 
marked “ May, 1871,” was the centre leaf thirteen months ago, it is now the 
seventh, and has already begun to decay ; and the other leaves were marked 
at intervals, giving an average of two months for the growth of each leaf. 
In two other fans I cut all the leaves at the same height from the ground 
on the 5th April last, and now observe that only the three centre ones in each 
plant have made any further growth, showing that the others were fully 
developed and had reached their full size, and that this maturity has been 
attained within six months of the first appearance of each leaf. 
As to the age of a plant, or of any portion of it at the time of flowering, I 
cannot speak positively, and I believe it varies very much. Many of the 
tihores flower very sparsely, and often fail to perfect seed. 
In large Phormium fields in certain years (it is generally supposed every 
third) there is a profusion of flower stalks (in 1871 in the Wairau plains 
there was a perfect forest of them), and in other years comparatively few, but 
we must not conclude that each fan flowers at the end of three years. On 
- one rhizome there are the cicatrices of more than fifty leaves, which at the 
rate of six per annum would make it eight years old, and on another which 
flowered the year before there are only twenty-five or twenty-six. It will 
require several years of close observation to determine this point, but I do not 
think it is one of any practical importance, as the decay of one fan does not 
seem to interfere with the growth of the remainder of the bush, which 
increases as it gets older, the rate depending of course on the soil and locality 
in which it is found. We have found that with transplanted sets the increase 
