280 AUSTRALASIAN 
In the bush are also generally found the native fuchsia, wild 
clematis, rata creeper (white and red), karaka (laurel, corino- 
carpus), koromiko (veronica), and many other flowering shrubs 
or creepers ; in the open, both on hillsides and swampy places, 
cabbage trees (Cordyline Australis and Dracena A ustralis), and 
the New Zealand flax (Phormium tenaz), and in the fern-lands 
generally, manuka (tea-tree, Leptospermum secparium), Yrawirl, 
(Leptospermum ericoides), and tutu (Coriaria sarmentosa). 
Most of the forest trees, especially the first five in the fore- 
going list, afford, in seasons when they blossom freely, not only 
excellent quality, but also a great quantity of honey. They do 
not, however, blossom equally well every year ; some of them 
even do not blossom at all in some seasons. The same may be 
said of the flax, which, however, in favourable seasons, exudes 
such quantities of nectar, or honey-dew, that it may be collected 
by hand. Dieffenbach observed, when examining the Taranaki 
district in 1840, large patches of land covered with Phormium 
tenax of great size. ‘The leaves in many instances were twelve, 
and the flower-stalks twenty, feet long; their flowers contain a 
kind of sweet liquid in considerable quantities, the extraction 
of which forms a favourite occupation among the New Zealand 
children.” The honey obtained from it is generally so thick as 
to be difficult to extract. The periods of blossoming of all 
these trees and plants varies considerably with their geographi- 
cal situation ; and it is very desirable that the particulars of 
their habits in that respect, as well as the character of the 
honey afforded by each, should be carefully noted by bee- 
keepers in all the different parts of the country. Mr. J. Blair, 
of the Great Barrier Island, about fifty miles north of Auckland, 
reports as follows with regard to the native flora of his dis- 
trict :— 
“‘Here the cabbage tree blooms in October—Novembher; flax, Novem- 
ber—December. ‘Tea-tree, it is possible to get a specimen of bloom all 
the year, but for practical purposes it blooms from the last week in 
March to the end of December, and the bees work on it all the time. 
My bees have been working on it now a fortnight, but it only gives 
honey in quantity from the beginning of October to the end of Decem- 
ber, and during that time they gather honey only. From March to 
October they gather both honey and pollen. From October to Decem- 
ber any one can both taste and see the honey in the blossom. Rewa 
rewa blossoms from September 20th to December 20th: any one can 
lick the thick honey off it with the tongue. When the bees get pro- 
perly started on these, they don’t take notice of any honey lying about. 
