CoLENSO. — On the Colour Sense of the Maoris. .63 



or dark markings ; these would be collected and preserved, and talked over, 

 and decided by the older men to belong to the parrot, sparrow-hawk, 

 common hawk, long-tailed cuckoo, wood-hen, bittern, etc., etc. And here 

 I may mention (as being probably but little known), that each separate 

 feather (primaries) of the wing, and also of the tail, bore its own distinct 

 and proper name. Distant trees, whether standing alone, or in clumps and 

 thickets, or growing with others in the forests, were also accurately known 

 by their colour — their peculiar and specific hue of green. So were distant 

 plains, and marshes, and open hills of a country wholly unknown to us ; 

 which, sometimes, lay before us, stretching out sonde miles away ! Such 

 would be sure to form an interesting theme to all of us ; particularly to my 

 Maori companions, who (poor fellows) always had to traverse those 

 unknown and trackless wilds, — hills, plains, and marshes, — with bare feet 

 and legs ; not to mention our often not knowing where sunset would find 

 us travelling, and so compel us to halt for the night. From their general 

 hues alone the Maoris could accurately tell whether those far-off unknown 

 places were covered with a vegetation of fern^ or flax,^ — dwarf kahikatoa^ 

 or mangrove, — toetoe^ or raupo,^ — wkvi'^ (species) or toetoeupokotangata,'' — 

 or, if of grasses, -whether patiti^ or raimioa? 



A remarkable instance of their detection of a change of colour in the 

 distant and unknown landscape, I may briefly relate, — especially as it com- 

 pletely bothered us all at first sight ! It happened in 1845, when I first 

 visited the South Taupo country from Hawke's Bay. On this occasion we 

 were without a guide ; we had advanced some way into the interior, and 

 had just sighted the high open lands of Taruarau, when the strange general 

 hue of their vegetation bearing a slightly reddish cast immediately attracted 

 our attention. That country was then wholly unknown to all of us, and so 

 was its vegetation ; moreover, it was trackless. Among my party were 

 some Maoris who had travelled much with me throughout the island, but 

 we had never before noticed anything like that. Some of the party said 

 one thing, and some another, and there was a long and earnest discussion 

 carried on, while we were slowly journeying thither, as to what it could 

 possibly be. Arriving there we found the reddish colour to be caused by a 

 low red sedgy Cyperaceous plant, with long narrow grass-like leaves, a 

 species of Uncinia,'-' which gave the prevailing reddish hue to the vegetation 

 round about. 



1. Pteris esculenta : 2. Phormium : 3. Leptospermimi scoparium : 4. Arimdo conspicua: 

 5. Typha angustifolia : 6. Juncus (sp.) : 7. Cyperus ustulatus : 8. The commoner perennial 

 grasses : 9. Spinifex hirsutus. 



* In sending specimens of this plant to England, I had named it V. rubra ; which 

 Boott, in describing it, also adopted. I see that Dr. Sir J. Hooker (in the Hand-book of 

 the New Zealand Flora), speaks of it as being " red," and, also, " red-brown when dry; " 

 but it is much more red when living. 



