ANACARDIACEyE 391 



ANACARDIACE^ 

 Corynocarpus Icevigata, Forst. Karaka 



Though this plant is treated both by Hooker and Cheeseman as 

 an indigenous species, it seems highly probable that it was introduced 

 into New Zealand by some of the early Polynesian immigrants. If 

 so, it was most likely brought from Western Polynesia by way of 

 the Kermadecs. There are three species of the genus Corynocarpus 

 all closely allied, one in New Zealand, one in New Caledonia, and 

 one in the New Hebrides. 



"Tradition says that one Roau came in the Nukutere canoe, 

 landing at Waiaua, near Opotiki, and brought with him the Karaka, 

 the ti and the taro." The date of this introduction was about twenty 

 generations ago, or five hundred years. Cheeseman says of its occur- 

 rence: "Abundant (in the North Island) chiefly in lowland situations 

 not far from the sea ; (in the South Island) Marlborough and Nelson 

 to Banks' Peninsula and Westland, but very rare and local." Once 

 introduced into the country it would readily be spread by fruit-eating 

 birds. The Maoris used the fruit for food. 



Similarly the plant was almost certainly conveyed from New 

 Zealand to the Chatham Islands. W. T. L. Travers in letters from 

 his son H. H. Travers (1871) learned that the natives stated that their 

 Maori (not Moriori) ancestors brought the tree with them. It is 

 found "growing abundantly in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 various old settlements, but not in the general bush of the islands^." 



Sub-division Calyciflor.^ 



LEGUMINOS^ 



Papilionace^ 



Lupinus arboreus, Sims. Tree Lupin 



Freely sown as a plant for sand-binding in many parts of New 



Zealand, but first recorded from Ashburton in 1903 as a garden escape. 



Cheeseman in 1906 reports it as increasing in some localities. It has 



got very commonly into many river beds in Canterbury and elsewhere, 



and has spread very considerably away from sandy areas where it has 



been sown. Indeed in many localities it assumes all the characters 



of a "pure formation." 



It was included under the name of Lupinus luteus, among noxious 

 seeds in the Act of 1900 ; and in the Second Schedule of the Act by 

 Special Gazette Notice of 20th June, 1901 . It is difficult to understand 

 why this was done. The plant is a nitrogen-fixer, and where it has taken 

 possession of great areas of sand-hills, it produces valuable surface 

 soil on which other plants afterwards grow freely. (Fl., Dec. to Jan.). 



1 Dr Cockayne says this statement is incorrect, and that Karaka is the dominant" 

 tree of the lowland forest in all parts of Chatham Island. 



