PUA BREAD. 
505 
mealy substance which surrounds the stones, is collected 
and tied up in leaves, and then steamed in the oven, this 
is thus rendered nutritious and palateable; the third kind 
is made from the pollen, Pua , of the Raupo (Typha augas- 
tifolia), the New Zealand bull-rush, this is collected with 
great care, and made into large cakes called Punga punga, 
and was so highly prized as to be only eaten by Chiefs. 
I forwarded a large cake of it to the Exhibition ; when first 
made it is of a bright yellow color and sweet, as if mixed 
with honey. It was singular that a similar kind of bread 
was also forwarded from Scinde, on these two, Professor 
Lindley, in a lecture on edible substances, made the fol- 
lowing remarks : — 
“ There is another very curious substance. These are 
cakes of Typha Bread, this from Scinde, that from New 
Zealand, where they are articles of food prepared from the 
pollen of the common reed mace or bull-rush of those coun- 
tries. The one from Scinde, which is called Boor , or Booree, 
is made from the pollen of the flowers of the tyjoha elephan- 
tina , or elephanPs grass of the country ; the other, which 
is called Punga punga by the natives of New Zealand, is 
obtained from another species of bulrush, called Typha 
augustifolia (the common Maori name is Pua for this bread ) ; 
these are the only cases known of the pollen of plants being 
used for food under any circumstances, and it is not a little 
singular that countries so far apart as Scinde and New Zea- 
land, should have the same most unusual kind of diet ; it is 
also interesting to know that the value attached to this as 
an article of food is not imaginary, for it appears from the 
researches of chemists that the pollen of plants contains an 
azotized matter, which mixed with the starch existing in 
pollen in great quantities, and with other matters, will give 
a real nutritive value to this curious substance.” 
But the close resemblance of the name used in these two 
widely-separated countries for the same substance, is still 
more singular, being in Scinde Boor or Booree , and in 
New Zealand Pua ; “ and it is strange,” remarks Professor 
Boyle, “that the Indo-European languages all exhibit the 
