THE AGE OE NEW ZEALAND. 
431 
natives converted it into fish-hooks. There is also a general 
resemblance between the aquatic plants of those islands and 
the fossil ones of the British coal measures ; of the catamites , 
and especially the stigmaria, to the roots of the raupo, tyjpha 
augustiflora, these often attain a length of several feet, and 
form a tube of one or two inches in diameter, covered by a 
strong silicious skin, with rings at regular distances, and a 
fringe of stiff fibres, with a circular dome-shaped termina- 
tion. In calcareous waters, these roots are often found with 
their forms impressed in the deposit, closely resembling the 
fossil stigmaria and calamites. Stigmaria Fycoides , figured 
in “ Miller’s Testimony of the Rock,” appears to be only the 
dried up foot stalk of a palm or fern tree, to both of which 
it bears a close resemblance. 
The next most ancient covering of the earth was composed 
of monocotyledonous plants, with their parallel-veined leaves ; 
they are endogenous in growth, or increase from within, as 
the palms, lilies, grasses, &c. The simple blade of grass 
may be regarded as the type of a large portion of the New 
Zealand plants, as well as those of the southern hemi- 
sphere ; the lofty bamboo and useful sugar cane are to be 
classed amongst the chief representatives of this order, and 
are but gigantic forms of grass ; the cane is, perhaps, 
one of the earliest types of the tree ; in the manner of 
growth, in its leaf and flower, it is but a grass ; its shoots 
can scarcely be termed branches, they spring both from the 
roots and joints, the same as in a tuft of grass. In the tro- 
pical Indian isles the cane has its chief development, and it 
terminates in Australia and New Zealand, where it is found 
in size little exceeding that of a strong stalk of grass. In 
the coal measures of Britain various fossil forms of the cane 
also abound. 
The Arica Sajoida , or Nikau palm, also belongs to the 
same age, and in a singular manner agrees with those found 
in our coal fields, by being also marked with annual rings. 
The Gycas and Zamia, which are likewise British fossils, have 
now their living representatives only in the southern hemi- 
sphere ; the true palm is a branchless tree ; the Ti dracena 
