CoLENSO. — On a better Knowledge of the Maori Race. 41 



and remained there at Patea on the West Coast. He also, they say, 

 brought with him on that occasion, the other cultivated edible root, the 

 taro (Caladium esculentum), and the karaka ( Corynocarpus IcEvif/ata), also 

 the swamp-bird, pukeko f Porphyria melanotus), some green parrots 

 (Platycercus i^acificus, and P. auriceps), the Maori rat, " and many other 

 good things for food."* Unfortunately, however, for them, nature is 

 against them, for the karaka-ixeQ is believed to be purely endemic ; so also 

 are the two green parrots, and the blue rail, pukeko. 



(c.) The Thames Maoris deny all the preceding, and assert that the 

 kumara was first brought from " Hawaiki" by the chiefs Hotunui and 

 Hoturoa, in their canoe called Tainui, which they say was also the first 

 canoe of emigrants thence to New Zealand. Or, as some others say, the 

 kumara was brought by the lady-wives of those two chiefs, named Marama 

 and Whakaotirangi, together with the hue {Cucurbita sp.), the an,te 

 (Broussonetia papyri/era), and the ^jo/ra '{Marattia mlicina), — and, also, the 

 karaka; but this last plant grew accidentally, as it were, the timber having 

 been shipped merely as skids to be used for drawing up their canoe on their 

 landing. Those identical poles, or skids, planted by them, and now grown 

 into trees, are still shown at Manukau ! (A suitable match for Dr. Hector's 

 newly- discovered plant at Kawhia — Pomaderris tainui, — of which a similar 

 legend is told.)t A portion of this story is so good that it deserves to be 

 fully translated. I therefore, give it. 



" When the canoe, Tainui, had been di-agged across the portage at 

 Tamaki (near the head of the Hauraki Gulf), and reached Manukau 

 (on the West Coast), they coasted south to Kawhia ; landing there, 

 those two ladies (Marama and Whakaotirangi) proceeded to plant 

 the various roots they had brought with them from ' Hawaiki.' This 

 they did in two separate plantations, at a place called Te Papa-o- 

 karewa in Kawhia ; but when those several roots sprung and grew up, they 

 all turned out differently. Of those planted by Marama, the kumara pro- 

 duced a pohue [Convolvulus sepium), the hue produced a maivhai (Sicyos 

 angulatus), the aute produced a whau [Entelea arborescens) , and the 

 para produced a horokio.l All the plantings of Marama grew wrcpg 



* See Grey's " Polynesian Mythology," p. 212, for this in part. 



t See " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," Vol. XI., p. 428. 



X Here, the correct natural discrimination of the old Maoris, in according plants of a 

 similar appearance and manner of growth to those planted, as their simulated substitutes 

 in mockery, is very apparent, and is worthy of a brief passing notice. Indeed, the first 

 two counterfeits belong severally and botanically to the same natural order (and one of 

 them to just the very same genus) as the two plants which had been planted and failed. 

 The third counterfeit, Entelea arborescens, though far separated botanically, has been often 

 planted by Europeans in the early Napier gardens as being the real aute (Broussonetia 



