432 
THE AGE OF NEW ZEALAND. 
or Gordyline Strida, remains so until it has flowered; its 
leaf, like that of the young palm, is a simple blade of grass, 
and its top is but a tuft of those grassy blades produced to a 
large size; as it increases the first leaves fall, and then a 
stem is gradually formed, which continues to grow, until it 
attains a height of nearly twenty feet, when a flower stalk is 
thrust out from the centre of the shoot, which it divides, 
and thus causes a second to arise, and so makes another 
branch; each succeeding year multiplies those shoots, and 
thus in process of time it becomes full of branches, and 
finally attains the size and height of a large timber tree, 
thus becoming a gigantic grass tree ; its wood, like that 
of the palm, is composed of a mass of parallel vascular 
fibres ; this also, like the cane, seems to be one of the 
earliest type, belonging to a very numerous family in New 
Zealand, and one which pervades the entire range of the 
southern hemisphere ; it is also a connecting link between 
the yucca and aloe, and appears to bear a general re- 
semblance to the Lepidodendron and Sigillaria. The same 
simple form is seen in the Australian Xanthorrhoea , or 
grass tree, in the Harakeke Phormimum Tenax , in the 
Kengarenga Arthop odium cirrhatum, the Turutu Dianella, 
and in many kinds of Astelia, which are either epiphytes 
loading the trees of the forest with their weight, or semi- 
aquatic plants flourishing in swamps. The various asters 
which enliven the central plains with their daisy-shaped 
flowers, and the extensive family of Taramea Acyphilla, 
with their dreadful pointed leaves, known by the name of 
(C Spaniards,” producing an aromatic rezin much prized 
by the natives; the climbing Kie Kie Freycinetia Banksii, 
the Paupo TypJia augustifolio , the Toetoe Pukako Lepido- 
sperrna , elatio, the Toitoi Arundo Australis , which ranges 
over the pampas of South America, as well as the plains of 
New Zealand and Australia; the Mata Arundo mata, a reed 
bearing a hard red grain. To these also must be added the 
extensive family of epacridious plants, with their carnation- 
shaped leaves, of which the Neinei Dracophyllum latifolium 
attains the size of a tree. These in general appear to be 
