958 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CORDYLINE INDIVISA ■= TOI OR MOUNTAIN PALM. 



By Mk. R. S. Thompson, Vice-President of the Normanby (New Zealand) 

 Horticultural Society. 



I believe it to be strictly within the functions of a Horticultural Society 

 not only to encourage the growth and improvement of products already 

 known, but to seek out and introduce to the notice of the government 

 and people of our colonies such specimens of the flora of New Zealand as 

 promise, by cultivation, development, and expert treatment, to add to the 

 staple productions and to the industries of the Empire. Taking this for 

 granted, I wish to bring before the notice of the Society a plant indige- 

 nous to New Zealand which yields a very strong and fine fibre, with a 

 view to experiment as to the best mode of treatment for extracting that 

 fibre, and also the most suitable method of reproduction and culture, in 

 order to obtain a speedy maturity, and the maximum quantity of fibre 

 annually. The botanical name of the plant is Cordyline indivisa, but I 

 have failed to find it described in Kirk's "Forest Flora," and am indebted 

 to Williams's Maori Dictionary for its classical name. Kirk, however, 

 mentions that there are six species of Cordyline in New Zealand, but 

 confines himself to a description of Cordyline australis, the ordinary 

 Cabbage-tree Palm. Kirk speaks of the utility of this latter, both in leaf 

 and trunk, for paper-making purposes, but as these matters have lately 

 been brought into notice by our timber expert, Mr. Freyberg, they may be 

 safely left in his hands. I am not aware that Cordyline indivisa has 

 ever received a European name other than the botanical one, hence I have 

 ventured to call it the "Mountain Palm." Palm-trees are generally 

 associated in our minds with sunny fountains and coral strands, but the 

 Palm under notice invariably grows at high altitudes. It was first brought 

 to my notice some twenty-five years ago as an edible plant, when a party 

 of natives returned from an exploration trip up the Tararua Mountains, 

 the chief saying, "There is no food on that mountain, only Toi." Not- 

 withstanding its native habitat, it flourishes exceedingly well when brought 

 under cultivation in the lower lands of the colony, and I believe reaches 

 maturity in less time than when, on its native heights, it has to struggle 

 with the severe cold and biting frosts of a semi- Alpine altitude. Both in 

 its wild state and under cultivation the full-grown tree is a most beautiful 

 object, of the ideal form of the Palm familiar to all in artistic pictures, 

 and when in blossom it throws out a flower-stem two or three feet in 

 length, so thickly covered with dainty white flowers as to give it the 

 appearance of one immense blossom, which subsequently yields innumer- 

 able seeds. The native name of the tree is Toi, and it was much valued 

 by the aborigines for the high quality of the fibre it produces. A mat 

 made of it is said to be thoroughly impervious to rain, even in inordinate 

 quantities, and in proof of this the Maoris have a tradition that of two 

 men caught in a bitter blizzard of days' duration, the one with a Toi mat 

 survived, whilst the other, with three capes of [New Zealand] flax fibre, 



