﻿244 Transactions. — Botany. 



applies to A. Solandri. This pellicle, I am informed, was also used in the 

 early days of the colony for the wicks of bnsh-manufactured candles. The 

 shaggy leaf-bases of A. Banksii, and other species, are said to have been made 

 into mantles by the Maoris, but I have not had the good fortune to see one*' ; 

 in softness their silky covering rivals the finest swan down. The fruit of 

 A . Banksii is eaten apparently by birds, but by what kinds is unknown. I 

 have seen hundreds of plants stripped of their fruit within a day or two of 

 its becoming ripe, without a trace being left on the ground ; possibly rats may 

 be concerned in the theft. The fruit of A. Solandri makes a clear, pleasant 

 jelly. When the leaves of A. trinervia are cut down a large quantity of a 

 dark jelly-like gum is exuded, but I am not aware that it has been ajjplied to 

 any useful purpose ; if of economic value, it may be procured in large quan- 

 tities at certain periods of the year, as it is often so plentiful along surveyors' 

 newly-cut lines, in districts where the plant abounds, as to prove an incon- 

 venience in walking. 



There can be no doubt that A. trinervia, A. Solandri, and A. Banksii, 

 afford a material superior to Phormium for the manufacture of paper, and that 

 it could be supplied in almost unlimited quantities. 



Perhaps I may be pardoned for adding that in an account of Cook's New 

 Zealand explorations, published in the colony, the author has strangely identi- 

 fied A. Banksii, or A. Gunninghamii (I forget which), with the "scurvy-grass," 

 (Lejndium oleraceum, Forst.) of that distinguished voyager. Phormium tenax 

 would be far more easily masticated. 



At a future period I hope to prepare a monograph of the New Zealand 

 species. The uncertainty existing as regards the original specimens of Banks 

 and Solander, and the almost total absence of alpine and subalpine specimens 

 for comparison with the lowland forms, renders this impossible at present. 

 The following descriptions, therefore, relate only to forms not included in the 

 " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora." 



Astelia Cunninghamii, Hook. f. 



Sub-species, A. Hookeriana. 



Ilamelinia veratroides, A. Ricli., Flor. 158, t. 24, (Flower onl}^). 



Tufted, leaves linear, 1-3 feet long, clothed with snow-white silky hairs at 

 the base ; points long, hairy or silky below, usually glabrous above ; nerves 

 about ten, one prominent on each side ; scapes slender, with long silky hairs. 



*[Tlie following may be useful for reference: — "Leaves and Down from the Kaha-kaka 

 (Astelia, sp. ), exhibited by T. B. Gillies, Esq. — A North Island plant that grows in poor 

 clay soil. This down makes excellent pillows, quite equal to feathers, and will probably 

 form a useful paper material. The btilbous part of this plant, as exhibited, yields 10 per 

 cent, of this down."— "Cat. N.Z. Exhib., 1865, p. 73.]— En. 



