pdf 25 MB - BSBI Archive

46 THE LEAF-FIBUE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX.
native-made ])askets arc in great demand among tlie settlers. About
Auckland I saw them constantly In use for the conveyance of fruit and
vegetables, especially of the peaches,* which are there so common in
Maori cultivations. The generic name of the New Zealand. Flax
plant— " Phormium "—is said to be derived from this economical
application of its leaf, viz. (^op/xos, a wicker basket, but the same term
signifies also a mat, and a seaman's cloak made ,of coarse plaited stuff
so that, as regards the economical applications of the plant products, the
generic name seems to have been appropriately chosen.
Tbe dried ilowering stem is not only largely used both by settlers
and Maoris for walking-sticks (I have so used it myself), but
it was at one time commonly used by the Maoris in tlie construction
of rafts,—known to the South Island native as " mDkihi"t (Haast),
especially in localities where large forest- timber for canoe construction
was absent. In the Chatham Islands, where there is now no such
timber, flax-stems are still so used, lashed together by thongs of llax-
Icaf or l)y " bush-ropes " % of some kind. Rafts, or canoes, or
" catamarans," are still octjasionally improvised by travellers or ex-
plorers in primitive parts of New Zealand, e. g. by Haast, who reports
constructing " catamarans " of dead trees when flax-sticks were not
obtainable. The same dried flowering stems are still employed by the
Otago Maoris in the construction of eel-pots (" punga ") for snaring
eels in the larger rivers. I remember accompanying my friend Mr.
Shaw, of Finegand, to a Maori village on the lower Chithe, for the
purpose of giving an order for the construction of a couple of eel-pots.
The wooden war-clubs of the Maoris were occasionally ornamented
with dyed flax. The essential feature of the "taupe" mat was flax
strips, dyed, but not otherwise prepared ; it was held in great estima-
tion as being quite impervious to rain. •
A gummy or gluey matter pervades the plant,—most abinulunt,
however, at certain times and in certain parts. It exudes naturally
from the cut leaves, and is\also artificially separable. The settlers de-
* Ripe in February, 18G2 ; the usual substitute there for apples in tarts and
stews,
t Williams defines " moki" (or " mokihi," East Cape dialect), as a "canoe
made of 'flags' or 'rushes' ;" so that other materials tlian flax-sticks (tliough
their exact character docs not here appear) are sometimes apparently also used
in their construction.
\ Climbers or creepers on forest trees ; species of Rhizoffontim, Parsonsia,
Riilus, rieyianlhu-1, Me/roxideros, Clematis.
— ;