I
Do Not Say But That By Hunting On The Peninsula, One Might Find One Or
Two Beautiful Species, But Simply That On The Whole The Flowers Are Few
And Ugly.
The only plant good to eat is Maori cabbage, and that is
swede turnip gone wild, from seed left by Captain Cook.
Some say it is
indigenous, but I do not believe it. The Maoris carry the seed about
with them, and sow it wherever they camp. I should rather write, USED
to sow it where they CAMPED, for the Maoris in this island are almost a
thing of the past.
The root of the spaniard, it should be added, will support life for some
little time.
Tutu (pronounced toot) is a plant which abounds upon the plains for some
few miles near the river-beds; it is at first sight not much unlike
myrtle, but is in reality a wholly different sort of plant; it dies down
in the winter, and springs up again from its old roots. These roots are
sometimes used for firewood, and are very tough, so much so as not
unfrequently to break ploughs. It is poisonous for sheep and cattle if
eaten on an empty stomach.
New Zealand is rich in ferns. We have a tree-fern which grows as high
as twenty feet. We have also some of the English species; among them I
believe the Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, with many of the same tribe. I
see a little fern which, to my eyes, is our English Asplenium
Trichomanes. Every English fern which I know has a variety something
like it here, though seldom identical. We have one to correspond with
the adder's tongue and moonwort, with the Adiantum nigrum and Capillus
Veneris, with the Blechnum boreale, with the Ceterach and Ruta muraria,
and with the Cystopterids. I never saw a Woodsia here; but I think that
every other English family is represented, and that we have many more
besides. On the whole, the British character of many of the ferns is
rather striking, as indeed is the case with our birds and insects; but,
with a few conspicuous exceptions, the old country has greatly the
advantage over us.
The cabbage-tree or ti palm is not a true palm, though it looks like
one. It has not the least resemblance to a cabbage. It has a tuft of
green leaves, which are rather palmy-looking at a distance, and which
springs from the top of a pithy, worthless stem, varying from one to
twenty or thirty feet in height. Sometimes the stem is branched at the
top, and each branch ends in a tuft. The flax and the cabbage-tree and
the tussock-grass are the great botanical features of the country. Add
fern and tutu, and for the back country, spear-grass and Irishman, and
we have summed up such prevalent plants as strike the eye.
As for the birds, they appear at first sight very few indeed. On the
plains one sees a little lark with two white feathers in the tail, and
in other respects exactly like the English skylark, save that he does
not soar, and has only a little chirrup instead of song.
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