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PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



The usual habitat of the pohutukawa is well described in 

 the following Hues : — 



" The stony faces of the cliffs thus rent 

 Showed twisted strata, strangely earthquake hent, 

 Running on each side circularly up — 

 A great grey hollow like a broken cup ! 

 Prom crest and crevice, tortuously flung 

 Those monstrous iron-hearted myrtles hung — 

 Stiff snaky writhing trunks, and roots that clave 

 And crawled to any hold the ramparts gave." 



" Ranolf and Avioliia," p. 474. 



Thus Domett, with his affluence of epithet, describes the 

 tree as it clings to its rocky stronghold. Surely it was some 

 vague perception of its fantastic shape and ocean-loving 

 nature, that led the Maoris to think that a bough of 

 p(jhutukawa was the last earthly hand-hold of the spirit when 

 it leapt off from the world above into Eeinga (the under- 

 world). For it was believed by them m olden times, that the 

 glrosts of the dead travelled northward along the mountain 

 ranges, until they came to the ridge of " wild rocks " running 

 out to sea in the extreme north, known as Cape Eeinga. 

 Passing along this to the very extremity of the land, they 

 came at last to a giant pohutukawa, with a great limb 

 overhanging the rocks of ocean. To this branch the spirits 

 hung for some time, reluctant to leave the upper world. At 

 length, through a sea-weed fringed cavern, the)' plunged into 

 the gloomy realms of Po. But time changes all things. So 

 many were killed in the wars of Hongi, that the great branch 

 became bent downwards by the number of spirits who 

 thronged it. When Mr. Cheeseman visited the Eeinga in 

 1895, the famous " Spray-sprinkled " " tree was still to be 

 seen. It however bore marks of extreme old age, and the 

 projecting branch bad long before been broken off. Only its 

 whitened stump remained. And little wonder, for though the 

 Avars of Hongi killed their thousands, European customs and 

 ]*juropean civilization have killed their tens of thousands. 



*Pohutukawa is said to mean spraj-siirinkled. The name therefore is singularly apt. 



