14 Traii.iactiiins. — Miscellaneous. 



and only handed down by the strict preserving of the seed (or tuber) ; and 

 the question with me has ever been, How were they first derived ? From 

 the Maoris themselves I never could learn anything satisfactory respecting 

 them, — save that they had had them of old from their forefathers. (Of 

 course, for the time, I set aside their legends concerning them). 



I have carefully enquired if the old Maoris had ever known the kumara 

 to flower, but they all said, " No ; never heard of such a thing." And they 

 never harvested their crop until after the withering of the leaves of the 

 plant. I have also frequently enquired if any sort or variety had ever been 

 newly raised by them, or their immediate fathers ; to this they also replied, 

 " No." 



Is it not possible that in ancient times this plant did flower here, and 

 that the old cultivators, either by design or accident, obtained their sorts by 

 sowing its seed ?* The northern tribes, especially the Ngapuhi, had, more 

 than forty years ago, obtained several new varieties of potato by sowing its 

 seed ; to which, however, they were first led by accident, having noticed 

 some young plants which had sprung from self-sown seeds of the ripe potato 

 berries, and from them they had obtained several good and prized sorts. 



Is it also not possible that this plant (kumara), through constant, as- 

 siduous, early, artificial cultivation, extending throughout centuries, has 

 permanently changed in this respect of non-flowering, as it is known the 

 early varieties of potato have done in England through repeated cultivation? 

 There the earliest varieties do not produce flowers or seed. There is an 

 excellent paper by Mr. T. A. Knight in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1806 (London), bearing on this subject f, in which Mr. Knight shoAvs, from 

 experiments made by him, that the same fluid or sap gives existence alike 

 to the tuber, the blossoms, and the seed, and that whenever a plant of the 

 potato affords either seeds or blossoms, a diminution of the crop of tubers, 

 or an increased expenditure of the riches of the soil, must necessarily take 

 place. Following this out he succeeded in producing varieties of sufficiently 

 luxuriant growth and large produce which never produced blossoms. I have 

 already shown that the Maoris used no manm'e, and planted the kumara in 

 poor gravelly soils devoid of all richness. 



2. The second plant generally cultivated by them was the taro. This 



* Here may also be noticed that a striking peculiarity obtains among the Maoris gene- 

 rally with respect to the name given to the tubers of this plant when used for planting — 

 purapura, which is the proper Maori name for all real svidU seeds, as of cabbage, etc. It 

 seems strange, seeing they revel in such a multiplicity of names for every variety of 

 natural objects, and for the several parts of any one thing. Purapura is also the name 

 given to potatoes when used for planting. 



t See Appendix B. 



