412 NEW ZEALAND. 



Cook left the common potato, which has been cultivated ever since 

 his visit, and is now plentiful. 



The native hemp (Phormium tenax) is a most useful plant ; it grows 

 in large quantities, and is applied by them to many purposes, besides 

 being a principal article of foreign trade. It is an important material 

 in the construction of their houses, for which purpose it is made into 

 cords, that are also employed for other more common uses. It is 

 manufactured into fine fishing-lines, which are much prized at Sydney 

 for their strength and beauty. 



The manufacture of the hemp is altogether performed by the women, 

 who cut it, and after it has been dried a little, divide it into strips of 

 about an inch in width. The outer green fibres are then scraped off 

 with a piece of glass, or a sharp shell. The inner fibres being thus 

 exposed are easily separated, and the greatest care is taken to keep all 

 the fibres as straight as possible, both in this and the following ope- 

 rations. To this precaution the great strength of the cordage the 

 natives make of it, is owing. After the fibres are separated, they are 

 washed, rubbed, and laid in the sun to bleach. 



The vegetation of New Zealand is of a fresher and deeper green 

 than that of New Holland, and has some resemblance to that of 

 Terra del Fuego. According to the missionaries, the ridges, and 

 indeed the greater part of the northern island, are destitute of trees ; 

 and the woods, which are confined to the valleys, are for the most part 

 in detached spots. The western part of this island contains more 

 actual forests than the eastern. 



It was remarked by our botanists that trees of genera which in 

 other countries grow in the more barren soils, are found in New 

 Zealand in those which are fertile. This is in particular the case 

 with the pine tribe. It also appeared to them, from the position of 

 isolated trees, and the quantity of Kaurie-gum found embedded in the 

 soil, that forests had formerly been more generally spread over the face 

 of the country, than they are at present. 



The gum which has just been spoken of, is still produced by the 

 Kaurie pine, which is the finest of the timber-trees of New Zealand. 

 The greatest portion of that which is shipped from the island, is dug 

 from the ground. Small quantities of the latter description have 

 been purchased by our countrymen, and shipped to the United States, 

 where it was manufactured into a varnish. This was of a good quality, 

 and was afterwards sent to New South Wales, and New Zealand, 

 where it is sold for copal varnish. 



The Kaurie and Kaikotia pines yield spars which for large ships 

 are not surpassed by any in the world. The trees are generally 



