DEMVxYTIONS OP THE LATIN NAMES OF PLANTS. 
181 
to remove the fair prize a hundred yards. If she breaks away she instantly 
hastens from her antagonist, and he has his labours to commence again. Some¬ 
times she secures her retreat in her fathers house, and her lover loses all chance 
of obtaining her; but if he carry her into his own house she immediately be¬ 
comes his wife. 
The women have a decided dislike to marriage, which scarcely can be wondered 
at, when we consider how they are circumstanced; whilst single they can enjoy 
all the privileges of the other sex; they can rove where they please ; they are 
entirely beyond restraint and control, and are at liberty to bestow their favours 
on whom they please; but when married their freedom is all at an end; they 
are then no better than slaves, but must submit themselves to labour and 
drudgery to their husbands, who have the power of life and death over them. 
In a group of New Zealanders you may easily recognize the slaves, who look 
both dejected and miserable, and are often maimed from the ill-treatment of their 
masters; and it not unfrequently happens that at the death of a chief most of 
his slaves are sacrificed. A male slave is not allowed to have connection with a 
female on pain of death. 
I made several excursions into the interior of the country, all of which tended 
to confirm my good opinion of the natives. The next paper will contain a 
description of their mode of warfare, and their funeral ceremonies. Some of your 
readers may consider that I am filling your pages with useless trash ; but I am so 
interested in the people and country that I have more to say if you find me room 
in your valuable pages. When you think any of my papers are without interest, 
I trust you will not fail to intimate the same, and I will desist. 
Martin Hall , near Bawtry , 
January 28, 1838. 
£To the sequel of Mr. Short’s series we—in common, doubtless, with our 
readers—look forward with pleasure for a rich store of interesting and valuable 
information relative to New Zealand.— Ed.] 
DERIVATIONS OF THE LATIN NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
By T. B. Hall. 
(Continued from page 63.) 
Agrostis. —From aypo«r, a field, because common therein; certain species being 
worthy of cultivation. 
Agrostis spica-venti , Silky Bent-grass.—It is liable to be smutted. Horses 
and Goats eat it, Sheep refuse it. After the spring-sown com has vegetated, 
