W hat I believe to be genuine and authentic the collected publications of William Colenso

684 WC: Or, as the mistress, to superintend the taking them to the village; the distribution, etc.

685 WC: Meaning,—well able to protect their own property.

686 WC: Many are the stories—curious, droll, and interesting—related of these little folks,—“imps,” elves, goblins, or fairies. I have never yet been able to decide, what particular English, German, or European term to give them as an equivalent. They are said to swarm in countless numbers; (see Story of Uenuku (supra), and Tawheta’s figurative and proverbial expression respecting them (p. 13); and to be just as ready to do good to men in difficulty, as to do mischief. Indeed it is said, in some of their old Myths, that it was from those little cunning beings that the Maoris learnt the art of making nets. Their various relations concerning them have always served to remind me of Gulliver’s active Lilliputians. They were found, also, in the depths of the forests, as well as on the sea-sands,—though rarely ever seen by men. Mr. Locke tells me that when he was engaged in surveying for the Government at Portland Island (Hawke’s Bay), the older Maoris residing there assured him that they had often in the early morning seen the countless footsteps of those imps on the sandy shore, by the sides of the fresh-water streamlet, where they had been holding their night revels. They bore different names (family or generic) among the old Maoris; which may also mean a difference in kind, dispositions, powers, etc.

687 WC: The head of a chief’s child being rigidly tapu (tabooed, or sacred), could only be touched by a tapu person, and so with its vermin; through which the poor children were often great sufferers.

688 WC: Graculus varius.

689 WC: Abbreviated and familiar for Houmea.

690 WC: By way of echo. Note how careful the narrator is here,—Uta does not teach them by words, but by significant gestures, etc.

691 WC: Graculus varius.

692 WC: Meaning the bad women to whom the term is applied.

693 WC: Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or the display of family portraits, O Ponticus?

694 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XI., Art. V., p. 77; and Vol. XII., Art. VII., p. 108; also, Vol. XIII., Art. III., p. 57.

695 WC: “On the Vegetable Food of the ancient New Zealanders,” “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 3.

696 WC: See Essay on the Maori Race, “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. I., § 53, xi.

697 WC: “It is singular that the Quichua name for sweet potatos, which I found in the high lands of Ecuador, is Cumar; identical with the Polynesian Kumara, or Umara, and perhaps pointing to the country whence the South Sea Islanders originally obtained this esculent.”—Dr. Seemann, in Flora Vitiensis, p. 170. See, also, my “Essay,” loc. cit., of an earlier date, § 53, pars xi.–xv.

698 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 23.

699 WC: See, below (p. 37) for meaning of this, etc.

700 WC: Hence, war-parties by land were careful not to travel over the old roads or common tracks, if there were any. See my paper “Historical Incidents and Traditions,” Part II., Uenuku, and the note there, (p.14 supra).

701 WC: See Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” p. 70: there, however, it is stated that they were “taro roots” which the old lady was counting; who, also, there bears a different name, or nick-name, Matakerepo—Totally blind, from her blindness. This is the only instance I have ever heard of taro being used for kumara-roots.

702 WC: See Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” pp. 4–13, for much concerning Tumatauenga, with Western embellishments.

703 WC: This is commemorated in their poetry, thus:—
—–“Ko ta namata riri,
He kahikatoa, he paraoa,
He Akerautangi.”

The fighting weapons in the days of old were (made of) the kahikatoa (wood), and sperm-whale bones, and the akerautangi (tree).

704 WC: In another ancient legend of Pani (principally found in the more northern parts of New Zealand), it is stated that Tiki was Pani’s husband. Tiki, also, being the first man, or progenitor, or precursor of man. In Dieff., Vol. II., pp. 47, 116, this is noticed. Dieffenbach obtained this information at Kaitaia Mission Station.

705 WC: See a similar figurative indication in the ancient legend respecting the beginnings of the fern-root, “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 24, first three lines.

706 WC: See this alluded to, in Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” p. 143.

707 WC: See Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” p. 212, for this in part.

708 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XI., p. 428.

709 WC: Here, the correct natural discrimination of the old Maoris, in according plants of a similar appearance and manner of growth to those planted, as their simulated substitutes in mockery, is very apparent, and is worthy of a brief passing notice. Indeed, the first two counterfeits belong severally and botanically to the same natural order (and one of them to just the very same genus) as the two plants which had been planted and failed. The third counterfeit, Entelea arborescens, though far separated botanically, has been often planted by Europeans in the early Napier gardens as being the real aute (Broussonetia papyrifera), and called, also, by its name, “Paper Mulberry;” there being a great common superficial likeness in the leaf, bark, size, etc., of the two shrubs. While the fourth counterfeit is evidently a fern, and very likely one of the large common tufted thick-growing coalescent ferns,—e.g., Polypodium pennigerum, Lomaria discolor, or L. gigantea, the smaller Dicksoniæ, etc. The Maori name of Horokio is now variously given by different tribes to different plants.

710 WC: This circumstance, however, is very differently related in Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” p. 142.

711 WC: Same name as under (a.) supra.

712 WC: Curiously enough, this is the same special name that is given to the kind of kumara said to have been brought from “Hawaiki” by Turi in his canoe (b., supra). See Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” p. 212.

713 WC: Great-cliff-(of-the)-sun, and Great-cliff-(of-the)-sky. The name of a high cliff on the East Coast, between Tolaga Bay and Poverty Bay, is Pari-nui-te-ra; this is, also, Cook’s Gable-end-foreland.

714 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., pp. 34, 35. In the list there given, however, there is Anurangi for Anutai; but the root-meaning of both words is the same.

715 WC: One MS. has it, Mahitihiti.

716 WC: I should, however, also state, that besides those three charms, or invocations, already mentioned, containing direct invocations to Pani, I possess, among several charms, etc., from the North, another charm used for the restoring of a sick person to health, in which Pani is also invoked together with her husband Tiki, and both simply and separately called on to grant health to the patient.

717 WC: Virgil, Ec. V., 74, 75: Georg. I., 335–350.

718 WC: Tia’s name is mentioned in connection with the Arawa, p. 146, Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology.”

719 WC: First Voyage, Vol. III., p. 472.

720 WC: See Grey’s “Polynesian Mythology,” p. 90.

721 WC: See my conjecture, as to possible meaning of the name kumara, p. 34.

722 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., pp. 8, 9.

723 WC: See, supra, pp. 35, 36.

724 WC: See, “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., pp. 5–10, 33, 34, etc.

725 WC: “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 63.

726 WC: “Trans N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XII., p. 153.

727 WC: “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XI., p. 81.

728 WC: In 1844 (on my coming hither to reside) the Maoris built several houses for me; one, in particular, as a library and study, in my garden, deserves a brief passing notice by way of an example. This one was to be built and finished in their best old style (omitting all carved work) without my interference; and, therefore, their skilled old tohungas were gathered together over the job from the interior and as far north as Poverty Bay. The building, composed of two rooms, was 10 feet high to the wall-plate. The frame-work and massy dubbed pilasters were composed of dark old totara wood, which they laboriously dug up from the bed of the Tukituki river, many miles away. It had three separate layers of raupo (Typha) in its sides, (besides the outer coating of a stiff and hard, yet fine, Restiaceous plant (Leptocarpus simplex). The raupo was first separated leaf by leaf, without breaking, and so carefully dried; but the panelling work between the pilasters (each panel being about 2 feet wide) was the curious part. First, the horizontal layers of narrow black and red bands, or laths, three of each colour, placed at regular distances; behind these was the close facing of selected yellow reeds (culms of Arundo conspicua) longitudinally and regularly placed; to these, and to a cylindrical black rod running down the whole length in front of the laths, the coloured laths were beautifully and elaborately laced by fine white, grey and yellow strips (excessively narrow, frac18; to 1/10 of an inch wide) of kiekie, pingao, and harakeke leaves, each panel being also wrought in a different regular pattern of raised filagree work. For years this house was the wonder of all visitors (European and Maori): Bishop Selwyn often admired it, and so did Mr. (afterwards Sir) Donald McLean, on his first visiting Hawke’s Bay as Government Land Commissioner, in 1851; indeed he told me he had never seen its equal; and he also gave orders for a similar one to be constructed for him at Port Ahuriri. This was also done; but it was but a poor imitation, as the skilled old builders were no longer here. In this latter house Mr. Domett, as Resident Magistrate and Crown Lands Commissioner, resided for several years. Mine stood over 25 years, when it was burnt down accidentally.

729 WC: Hence it was that the old Maoris devised and fitted out their admirable lure, made of a long cut and carved slip of the shell of the Haliotis iris, for sea-fishing with hook and line, particularly in the summer season for the kahawai (Arripis salar); when they paddled their little canoes, each manned by a single fisher, briskly through the water, with their line and lure towing astern. And here, I should further observe, that it was not every shell of the Haliotis that would serve the skilled Maori fisher’s purpose; no, he would turn over and examine a score or two until he had found one which, to his searching eye, gave the exact tint of colour he required. And just so it also was in their painfully selecting a bit of the same shell for the artificial eyes of their staffs, etc.—See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.” Vol. XII., p. 77, note B.

730 WC: “Huer,” in Cornwall, on the pilchard seine-fishery; and done by the old Maoris, by signs, much as it is still practised there.

731 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 44, for an instance.

732 WC: Pteris esculenta.

733 WC: Phormium.

734 WC: Leptospermum scoparium.

735 WC: Arundo conspicua.

736 WC: Typha angustifolia.

737 WC: Juncus (sp.).

738 WC: Cyperus ustulatus.

739 WC: The commoner perennial grasses.

740 WC: Spinifex hirsutus.

741 WC: In sending specimens of this plant to England, I had named it U. rubra; which Boott, in describing it, also adopted. I see that Dr. Sir J. Hooker (in the Handbook of the New Zealand Flora), speaks of it as being “red-brown when dry” but it is much more red when living.

742 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 36.

743 WC: Wairuaarangi—the proper name of this variety of taro is so highly expressive (like most special names among the old Maoris) that I am tempted to give its full meaning, and to offer a few words upon it. Wairuaarangi, lit. Reflection-from-(the)-sky: meaning, the light reddish-pink tint, as sometimes thrown of an evening over the features of the eastern landscape, from a glowing sunset; also, the more distant, faint, reddish hues of the rare ends of an aurora australis. This colour (as I have sometimes seen it of a summer’s evening), when cast on or reflected back from white cliffs or mountain snow, or from an extensive flat filled with the dead feathery panicles and culms of the large cutting-grass (Arundo conspicua), is exceedingly like that of the pink flesh of that peculiar variety of taro; and its poetical beauty, as well as its truthfulness, is still further enhanced when we think (as the old Maoris did) of that beautiful colour as emanating from a Personage, (the Sky), and their great, first, and common Father.
I have before had occasion to observe that, with the old Maoris, the name of a thing meant a great deal—very much more, concerning its qualities, uses, etc., etc.—than we at best can possibly suppose. Hence, too, the incessant demand from them in the early days, on seeing any new thing, whether vegetable or animal, especially if living, of—“the name,” “the name?”

744 WC: Harakeke—flax, (of which they have more than 50 sorts, or varieties, every one bearing its distinct and proper name).
Ika—fish, (nearly all fishes; each, however, has its own proper name).
Kai—food, (also, all articles of food; though each one has its own proper name).
Kahu—a garment, (all garments, of which they had a great and varied number, all bearing proper names).
Kowhatu—a stone, (all stones, etc).
Hua—fruit, (of plant, tree, bird (egg), fish (roe), etc).
Rakau—tree, (of all trees; yet each one has its own proper name, and some several names for various parts of the same tree, which are often given for the colour).
Pipi—a bivalve shell-fish, (and generally for all salt-water bivalves; each one, however, has it own distinct name).
Pupu—a univalve shell-fish, (ditto).
Kumara—sweet potato, (yet many sorts, all bearing proper names).

745 WC: Of which a few instances are here given by way of example:—
Paua, the black flesh of the Haliotis; also, a black sunburnt potato.
Mangu, mamangu, and mangumangu, black (colour); also, ink, blacking, etc.
Tawatawa, the mackerel, and tamure, the snapper fish; also, a peculiar appearance of the sky from cirrus and cirro-cumulus clouds, through which the blue appears something like the deep blue wavy marks on the back of a mackerel freshly caught (this term of mackerel-sky, is also given to it by Europeans); also, resembling the dark wavy lines on the flesh of a fresh snapper under its skin when cooked.
Toroamahoe, the white-skinned root of the mahoe tree (Melicytus ramiflorus); also, a variety of whitish skinned kumara of exactly the same shade of colour.
Pokere kaahu, a dark purple variety of kumara;—from pokere, the dark purple flesh of the fruit of the tawa tree (Nesodaphne tawa), and ka ahu, to proceed towards; to grow up to; to become like to.
Parakaraka, the orange-red colour of the fully ripe karaka fruit; also, a light reddish-orange variety of kumara. [N.B. This variety of kumara has ever been believed by me to be the identical sort seen and obtained by Cook and his companions, and well-named by them chrysorrhizus.]
Pohutukawa, a tree (Metrosideros tomentosa) having reddish wood; also a variety of kumara with reddish flesh of just the same shade of colour.
Whero, red (colour); also the rectum protruding, etc.
Kumu, the anus; whakakumu a red variety of kumara; kumukumu, the red-backed gurnard (Trigla kumu).
Kawakawa, the Piper excelsum shrub; with glaucous green leaves; also, a particular variety of jade-stone, having just the same hue of green.
Pounamu, the green jade-stone (general name); also, a common green glass bottle, and (with the Ngapuhi tribe) a peculiar potato, planted in February and ripe in May: (infra, § 6).
Waikura, the reddish stagnant water of some sluggish water courses and pools, arising from a deposit of protoxide of iron; also, rust on iron tools, etc.
Waro, charcoal; also, mineral coals; a very dark cave; a black abyss.
Pukapuka, the shrub with large leaves, white underneath, (Brachyglottis repanda); also, a book; white paper, etc.

746 WC: Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. ix., c. 60–63.

747 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XII., p. 99.

748 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XII., p. 142.

749 WC: See note § 3, clause 3, supra; hence that name.

750 WC: Vide, “London Journal of Botany,” Vol. I., p. 301; and, Hooker’s “Icones Plantarum,” Vol. VI., t. 548.

751 WC: This was the common custom among all the tribes; yet a legendary incident showing the very opposite, may be briefly noticed; particularly as a proverbial saying of some power and often in use is said to be founded on it. On one of their famed “canoes” from “Hawaiki” reaching the shores of New Zealand, the chiefs on board saw the littoral pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros tomentosa) bearing a profusion of red blossoms; then one of them named. Tauninihi flung his own red (feather) head-ornaments into the sea, in order to re-decorate his hair with those beautiful red things before him, saying, “Those on land were far better!” but, on gathering them, they fell to pieces, and he discovered them to be only mere flowers! and was, consequently, much chagrined. After this, his cast-away red head-dress was washed on shore at a place near by, and found by another person named Mahina; who, on Tauninihi seeking to recover it from him, refused to give it up, saying, that it was a waif washed on shore and found by Mahina; which saying also settled the matter. This sentence became a proverb, and was always used by a Maori on finding anything; and through his so doing, the claim to retain it was usually allowed. No doubt there is a far deeper meaning in this ancient story than what appears on its surface.

752 WC: See, “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 34.

753 WC: See, “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XII., pp. 124, 138, etc.

754 WC: Here I would remark, that it was always my opinion—I might say, my well-grounded belief—that to the old Maoris the unclouded midnight sky did not everywhere appear to be of so dark, or so clear, a blue as it does to us,—owing to the superior strength of their far-off and piercing sight, through which they saw very many more of the smaller stars, and even nebulæ, than we did, or could. I have already mentioned, in a former paper (“Transactions,” Vol. XIII., p. 63, note) my having proved their seeing with the unassisted eye Jupiter’s satellites; and I have also repeatedly proved their seeing not only the “seven” stars in the cluster Pleiades (which was one more than I could ever see), but even more!—eight, nine, or ten. And so, again, in some parts of the Milky Way,—the nebulæ in Argo Navis, and in Orion,—the Magellanic clouds, etc., etc., all appeared to them more clearly defined, more starry (if I may so say), than to us. Still, their very expressive proper name for the intense blue sky—kikorangi (on which and its correlatives a chapter of interesting philological exegesis might be written) must be borne in mind. (I believe that I was the first who discovered, or unearthed, and brought into early notice this term.)

755 WC: In 1836, while residing at Paihia, Bay of Islands, I had a living specimen of the blue penguin, which I kept alive for some time in my garden. I made it a little skin jacket, with a brass ring in the back, and to this I frequently tied a long fishing-line and let the bird go out to sea, where it dived about and enjoyed itself. One day it bit the line in two, and so got off. It was a wonderful pet with the Maoris.

756 WC: And here it should be remembered, that while the flax-mats were manufactured only by women, the dogskin-mats were wholly made-up by men.

757 WC: Palæontology, p. 443; Second Edition.

758 WC: There are also several other proper names of red,—as, kura, kurakura, ngangana, pakurakura, ura, etc.

759 WC: These six terms are really beautiful ones, possessing great depth of meaning: A good and interesting philological chapter might be written in their exposition.

760 WC: Discovered in December, 1841, and published in “Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,” vol. ii., pp. 226, 250.

761 Atalacmea fragilis Sowerby.

762 Echyridella menziesii Gray.

763 Orthodera novaezealandiae Colenso.

764 Argosarchus horridus White.

765 Deinacrida heteracantha White.

766 WC: Vide Jurors’ Reports, p. 254

767 Pachyrhamma edwardsii Scudder.

768 Scolopterus aequus Broun.

769 Not found.

770 Not found.

771 Stet.

772 WC: “Flora Novæ-Zealandiæ,” vol. i., p. 7, and “Handbook New Zealand Flora,” p. 2.

773 Possibly Clematis foetida Raoul.

774 WC: The numbers here attached to both Orders and Genera are those of the “Handbook of the New Zealand Flora.”

775 Parsonsia heterophylla A.Cunn.

776 Drymoanthus adversus (Hook.f.) Dockrill.

777 Astelia solandri A.Cunn.

778 WC: Atlas Botanique, “Voy. de L’Astrolabe,” t. 24.

779 WC: Astelia richardi, Endl., apud Kunth, Enum. Plant., vol. iii., p. 365.

780 Collospermum spicatum (Colenso) Skottsberg.

781 WC: Not, however, “in swamps” (“Handbook New Zealand Flora,” p. 284), but on the open hill-tops, with Caltha, Euphrasia revoluta and antarctica, Myrsine nummulari-folia, etc.

782 Grammitis ciliata Colenso.

783 WC: Described in “Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,” vol. ii., p. 166, 1843.

784 WC: Prodromus “Flora Novæ-Hollandiæ,” p. 2.

785 WC: Bentham’s “Flora Australiensis,” vol. vii., p. 762.

786 WC: “Syn. Fil.,” p. 507.

787 WC: Loc. cit., p. 319.

788 WC: Loc. cit., p. 322.

789 Pneumatopteris pennigera (G. Forst.) Holttum.

790 Pneumatopteris pennigera (G. Forst.) Holttum.

791 Plagiochila stephensoniana Mitt.

792 Tylimanthus tenellus (Tayl.) Steph.

793 WC: See “Handbook N.Z. Flora,” pp. 751–754.

794 Professor Scott spoke to the Otago Institute in support of Colenso (Otago Witness 14 November 1885).

795 WC: See above, p. 49.

796 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” vol. xii.,—and so throughout, whenever Mr. Stack’s paper is referred to.

797 WC: I have often—aye, almost constantly—lamented, that the Government did not carry on this work: had such been done, neither Mr. Stack nor myself had written our papers.

798 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” vol. xi., pp. 97 and 98, for my translation.

799 WC: Observe here how Dr. Sparrmann (who accompanied Captain Cook to New Zealand) naturally hit on the same term in colour for this bird (chloris) as the Maoris had formerly done.

800 WC: “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” vol. i., p. 37 of “Essay.”

801 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” vol. xiii., p. 373.

802 WC: I suppose that some of those colours of dress, she is said now to know by name, are such as the following, e.g.:—
plum-colour rose-colour
lavender-colour orange-colour
lemon-colour claret-colour
sage-green-colour pea-green-colour
fawn-colour mouse-colour
dove-colour salmon-colour
etc., etc., etc.
Now where is the very great difference in expression, or rather, say, the superiority, of these of the Europeans over those of the Maoris, by whom similar natural objects having the exact shade of hue required were also used comparatively?

803 WC: In “Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,” vol. ii., p. 300.

804 Stet.

805 WC: Having here alluded to the bite of the katipo spider, I should also say (lest I should be misunderstood) that I do not support those monstrous stories respecting the effects of its bite, which some have related; (some of those accounts are, I think, to be found recorded in the early volumes of the Trans. N.Z. Inst.). In past years I had several cases of persons bitten by the katipo brought to my notice, including Europeans and Maoris: some of them I had also to attend to medically, and so watched the cases; and while the effects of the bite are generally pretty severe at first, they are transient, being completely over by the second day, leaving no after effects; and never, I believe, caused death, or anything like it.

806 WC: See Proceedings, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xiv., p. 566.

807 WC: Vol. vi., p. 187, and vol. x., p. 281.

808 WC: For the full description, and a drawing with dissections of this spider, see Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol vi., p. 200.

809 Cyathea dealbata (G.Forst.) Sw.

810 WC: This habit, however (so widely different from that of C. dealbata), makes it a very difficult matter to lay out and dry a specimen flat; indeed, I have been obliged to abandon it, save in a few small segments, although I took with me into the forest a portfolio having remarkably thick covers.

811 Dicksonia squarrosa (G.Forst.) Swartz.

812 Hymenophyllum demissum (G.Forst.) Sw.

813 Asplenium lyallii (Hook.f.) T.Moore.

814 WC: I am well aware of what has been so largely and efficiently done in all those natural orders by many eminent continental cryptogamists, as Schimper, C. Müeller, Hedwig, and Schwœgrichen, Gottsche, Lindenberg, and Nees, Acharius, Fee, and Nylander, Fries, Corda, and Tulasne, Agardh, and Kutzing, and others; but I have purposely confined my remarks to British cryptogamic botanists.

815 WC: Vide infra, including the lately-discovered new species.

816 WC: I may be permitted to make a brief allusion to my own invariable mode of acting on revisiting those grand old woods, where fancy leads me to imagine that the trees and plants, ferns, mosses, and flowers both recognize and smilingly welcome me. Although in my saying this I lay myself open to be laughed at rather than to be followed, “wearing my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at,” I take off my hat and salute them feelingly, and so again on leaving them for the last time. I also take care not wantonly to break off or pull up to cast aside any specimens, and always tread carefully among the lovely ferns, mosses, etc. Feelings of a similar nature must have possessed the ancient Greeks, as well as the ancient New Zealanders, who always made a deprecatory speech, addressed to the guardians (or genius loci) of those grand old unfrequented woods, whenever they entered them to fell a tree for a canoe or any particular purpose.

817 WC: I don’t know if any colonist (whether private gentleman or horticulturist), being an admirer of elegant and handsome shrubs, has ever attempted to cultivate this beautiful plant. Indeed, I doubt of its thriving, save in a very shaded, sheltered, and damp shrubbery. The beholding of this tree in its beauty has often served to remind me of the famed Plane-tree on the banks of the Meander, which, on account of its extreme beauty. Xerxes adorned with chains of gold, and assigned it a guard of honour, on his invasion of Greece.—(Herodotus, Polymnia, xxxi.).

818 WC: Having mentioned the “coal-black bark” of this pretty tree, I would also give in a note an after-thought (which has occurred to me since I left the forests), viz., that I scarcely recollect ever having seen its trunk and branches bearing any lichens or mosses, where almost all trees and shrubs (not having deciduous bark) bear them thickly in countless profusion: and the same peculiarity, I think, obtains with another small tree possessing piquant bark, viz., Piper excelsum. If I am correct in my remark, what is such a bare state, or lack of living drapery, to be attributed to? Can it be owing to the extreme pungency of their barks?

819 WC: As I was writing, primarily, on the number of those ferns published in the “Handbook N.Z. Flora” which I had found in this one spot, I purposely omitted any reference to this tree-fern (C. polyneuron) when remarking on the lovely scenery of that place; this plant being a recent discovery. But this large and graceful fern-tree, with its ample drooping fronds, adds much to the living beauty of that landscape.
One of the prettiest fairy-like scenes I ever saw in our New Zealand woods, I have, on more than one occasion, witnessed, when reclining on the grass under the shade of one of these tree-ferns. It was noon, and the summer sun was high, and the view, on looking up through the interlacing overhanging foliage softly waving in the breeze, was truly enchanting, every vein and veinlet being highly translucent [hence, I had very nearly specifically named it translucens], and then the green of its arched fronds was of such a delicate hue, such a truly sparkling living green without a blemish. The finely-marked ever-changing traceries, and glints and gleams of vertical sun-light peering down through the many myriad veins in that living bower, on those occasions, were far beyond language! At such times one no longer wonders at our forefathers deeming those evergreen recesses and bowers to be the beloved haunts of wood nymphs and dryads, fays, fairies, and pixies—a belief also firmly and pleasingly held by the ancient New Zealander.

820 WC: As a further proof, I may here mention that I have this year detected four new species of ferns,—two of them being also tree-ferns,—in another unfrequented portion of these grand old forests, some ten miles south of this spot; of which a full description will be given in a future paper.

821 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Institute,” vol. i.,—Essay “On the Botany of the North Island of New Zealand,” §§ 14, 22.

822 WC: The numbers here attached to both orders and genera are those of “The Handbook of the New Zealand Flora.”

823 Stet.

824 Pachystegia insignis (Hook.f.) Cheeseman.

825 Gunnera x strigosa Col.

826 Peraxilla tetrapetala Tiegh.

827 Hebe diosmifolia (A.Cunn.) Andersen.

828 Earina mucronata Lindl.

829 WC: This, however, is best seen on the maturation of the fruit, as the bracteole enlarges with it, and assumes a sub-calycine a cap-shaped form.

830 Winika cunninghamii (Lindl.) M.A.Clem., D.L.Jones et Molloy.

831 WC: It is said to have been originally discovered by Banks and Solander in 1769.

832 WC: Botanical Register, tab. 1756.

833 Currently included in Pterostylis banksii A.Cunn.

834 Libertia grandiflora (R.Br.) Sweet.

835 Cordyline banksii Hook.f.

836 Uncertain: possibly a Cordyline hybrid.

837 Stet.

838 Uncinia rupestris Raoul.

839 Uncinia uncinata (L.f.) Kuk.

840 Stet.

841 Symphyogyna hymenophyllum (Hook.) Mont. et Nees.

842 WC: “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” vol. xiii., p. 368.

843 WC: This genus does not appear in the “Flora N.Z.,” neither in the “Handbook Flora N.Z.” (as it was not known to inhabit New Zealand). I have, therefore, numbered it to come after Riccia (Gen. 40), the last genus of Sir J.D. Hooker’s Hepaticæ; although I am aware that the authors of the Syn. Hepaticorum place it before Marchantia.

844 Monoclea forsteri Hook.

845 WC: “In Insulis Australibus.” (Forster in Hb. Lambert).

846 From Arthur Hugh Clough’s epistolary poem “Amours de Voyage” (1858) line 1235 et seq.

847 Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. (Proverbs 9: 9).

848 WC: Vide “Essay on the Maori Races,” Trans. N.Z Inst., Vol. I., §48 of Essay:—Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. XIII., p. 64, etc.

849 WC: In the large 4to. original edition of Cook’s Voyages, Capt. Cook has a few racy and correct remarks on the N.Z. language, highly applicable here; he says,— “It is the genius of the language to put some article before a noun, as we do the or a; the articles used here were generally he or ko: it is also common here to add the word öeia after another word as an iteration, especially if it is an answer to a question; as we say, yes indeed; to be sure; really; certainly: this sometimes led our gentlemen into the formation of words of an enormous length, judging by the ear only, without being able to refer each sound to its signification. An example will make this perfectly understood:—In the Bay of Islands there is a remarkable one, called by the natives Matuaro. One of our gentlemen having asked a native the name of it, he answered, with the particle, Komatuaro; the gentleman hearing the sound imperfectly, repeated his question, and the Indian repeating his answer, added öeia, which made the word Komatuaroöeia; and thus it happened that in the log book I found Matuaro transformed into Cumettiwarroweia: and the same transformation, by the same means, might happen to an English word. Suppose a native of New Zealand at Hackney Church, to enquire “What Village is this?” the answer would be, “it is Hackney”: suppose the question to be repeated with an air of doubt and uncertainty, the answer might be, “it is Hackney indeed,” and the New Zealander, if he had the use of letters, would probably record, for the information of his countrymen, that during his residence among us he had visited a village called “Ityshakneeindede.”—Voyages, Vol.III., p. 476.

850 WC: “Parkinson’s Island,” as laid down in the Original Map of the Voyage.

851 WC: This agrees with what both Cook and Parkinson say.

852 WC: This word is also a contraction of its longer original name,—Mangakotukutuku, having the same meaning.

853 WC: I may here mention in a note, that I have often euquired in years gone by of aged priests and chiefs respecting the derivation of this, and of many other similar and peculiar proper names, and have very frequently received the answer,—“It was given by the men of the olden time, and the reason is to us unknown.” Here it should also be borne in mind, that in very many instances the ancestors of the tribe now dwelling in, or owning those places, were not those who had originally named them; they had been early killed and exterminated! and so it had gone on for ages in succession! See a very good Maori letter on this subject translated by me.— “Trans, N.Z, Inst.,” Vol. XII., p. 97, note.

854 WC: See a similar European error re “Hades” and Hell, exposed, in “Transactions N.Z. Institute,” Vol. XII., p. 122, and note there.—As some who may read this paper may not have access to Vol. XII. “Transactions,” I give here the European error alluded to above in an extract from the said note (omitting, however, from its length the very interesting Maori legend). “A few years ago the Superintendent of the late Auckland Province (Mr. J. Williamson) sought to have an interview with a Maori chief of note on political matters; this, however, the chief would not grant, ending with saying,—“you and I shall never meet until we meet in the reinga.” This, of course, was made much of. The dreadful bitterness of expression,—“never unitil we meet in hell”!—was intensified and dwelt upon shudderingly with much Christian feeling, but all through ignorance on the part of the Christian Europeans. The New Zealander had no such thoughts, and only made use of an old Maori saying; the English having chosen this word (reinga) as the equivalent for hell; a meaning, however, which it does not possess.”

855 Bridge of asses.

856 WC: With the old Maoris, the fat, or oil, of lands, forests, &c., meant their choicest plentiful fruits and productions; just as with the ancient Hebrews,— “fat of the land,” “fat of fruits” &c.,—Gen. 45. 18; 49. 20. Num. 18. 12, 29. Ps. 81. 16; etc.

857 WC: Vide “Essay on the Maori Races,” Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. I., §43.

858 WC: As this new township has been named after the present resident Chief and Maori Member in the House of Representatives—Henare (Henry) Toomoana, and as his eldest brother, lately deceased, Karaitaina (Christian) Takamoana, was the Maori Member before him, and as both their compound surnames terminate with moana = Ocean; it may be well to give in a note the origin of those names, or the cause of their being conferred on these two (uterine) brothers; for, like in many other instances, those surnames were not those of the family, nor their own earliest names.—
Some 50 years back, one of the then principal and powerful Chiefs of this place, Tiakitai, (always miscalled by the early foreigners “Jacky Ty”!) went on board of a ship , in this Bay; and, the weather changing, he was carried off in her to Port Jackson and other places; he returned however safely to his home and tribe. Hence the name of Takamoana = to change, to roam, to go about from place to place by sea, was bestowed on this then young Chief and relative, in commemoration of that event. Toomoana, was also conferred as a name on the younger brother, on account of an insult or threat, spoken in the old days of feuds and bloody fightings, (and but a very short time before that I came here to reside,) in which the speaker threatened to drag up their canoe with its contents from the sea, and, of course, to seize it, &c. Hence, to keep the insult (which was a gross one) in remembrance among the sub-tribe, in order to its afterwards being fully avenged, this name of Toomoana = Dragged from the sea, was given to the boy. Such changes were common, and cause great trouble in unravelling their history, legends, &c. (See “Essay on the Maori Races,” Transactions. N.Z. Inst., Vol. I., §28(2): and, Vol. XIV., p. 15, notes.)
In the last edition of the Maori Bible this has been in a measure obviated, by using both long and short marks over the vowels where required; but this is more for the benefit of the English reader. I have never known a Maori so to write, but, on the contrary always to use the two vowels together to make the necessary long sound, which is also done by the other Polynesians. And here I may also remark, that the syllable too (in the Maori words above), is not pronounced as it would be in English, but as if written (in English) toe, or tow.

859 WC: It is worthy of remark, that this ancient term, now but very rarely used, was one of these expressive ones spoken by Paikea, when swimming towards land, struggling far off in the Ocean. (Transactions N.Z. Institute, VoL XIV., p. 20, v. 1.)

860 WC: Essay “On the Maori Races,” §51, par. 5; Transactions N.Z. Institute, Vol. I.

861 WC: A few years back when I held the office of Government Inspector of Schools for this Provincial District, I was frequently sorely puzzled in my School visitations, owing to the erroneous orthography in many places in the Maps and School Geography of New Zealand. Very many Maori names of places I knew to be wrong, and others of places unknown to me I supposed to be so, as they were not given in true Maori, (of course I am referring to the edition of 1871; there may, however, have been subsequent editions with these errors altered.) And this was the more to be regretted, for the outlines and execution of the maps were very clear and correct; and very much of the information given, (physical, descriptive, and historical—modern,) was of a superior and useful character.

862 WC: The old legends respecting it are very interesting, of which more anon.

863 WC: New Zealand Geography, page 3.

864 WC: “Voyage de L’Astrolabe, Botanique,” Vol. I., p. 315.

865 WC: “Travels in New Zealand,” Vol. I., p. 77.

866 WC: I have often been struck some 40 years ago with the close phonetic rendering of many Maori nams of Birds, Fishes, &c., by the two Forsters (father and son) who accompanied Cook on his second Voyage to N. Zealand, and with the large amount of patient toil they must have experienced in taking them down; albeit their orthography, at first sight, abounding in harsh double consonants, looks very barbarous, and is anything but tempting: also, with those of Lesson (already mentioned) and other Naturalists belonging to the French Discovery Expeditions of 50-60 years ago. Of course their orthography varies much from the far simpler one adopted in rendering the Maori tongue into writing; still it is such that I could have beneficially used in my early enquiries among the Maoris, which is more than can be said of many (so-called) Maori names more recently written, above referred to. A few of those old Maori names of Birds I will give here from Forster, as a curiosity. It will be seen that he, in many instances, adds the indefinite article (he = a) to the name of the Bird, and uses g and gh, hard for k.

English Name. Maori name Maori name from Forster

Sparrow-hawk - Karearea - - - Kari-area

Owl - - - - - - - - -Ruru - - - - - - Herooroo

Kingfisher - - - - Kotare - - - - - Ghotarre

Parson-bird - - - Tuii - - - - - - -Toi

Bell-bird - - - - - Kopara - - - - Heghòbarra

Thrush - - - - - - - Koropio - - - Golobieo

Fantail flycatcher Piwakawaka -Diggowaghwagh:

Piouakaouaka, Less.

Robin - - - - - - - Toitoi - - - - - Ghatoitoi

Pigeon - - - - - - Kereru - - - - Hagarrèroo.

Plover - - - - - - - Tuturuwatu - - Doodooroo-attoo.

Blue Heron - - - Matuku - - - - Matook: Matoucou, Less.

Paradise Duck - Putangitangi - Pooa dugghie dugghie.

Duck - - - - - - - - Parera - - - - - He-Parerra.

Tern - - - - - - - - Tara - - - - - - He-Talle.

867 WC: This plant was originally discovered by myself in 1838, and again in 1841, at Poverty Bay; and sent by me to Sir W. Hooker in 1842, who published it, with its Maori name, &c., in the “London Journal of Botany,” Vol. III., p. 17, in January, 1844; it was also published by myself in the “Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,” Vol. II p. 232, in 1843.

868 WC: Loc. cit., p. 768.

869 WC: Loc. cit., p. 255.

870 WC: See a simple European error re “Hades” exposed, in “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” VOL XII, p. 122, note there; and, note, p. 6 of this paper.

871 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIV., p. 67, note. Here, also, the peculiar name of the pink-flesh Kumara—Wairua-a-rangi, and its derivation, should be borne in mind.— “Trans. N.Z. I.,” XIV., p. 54, note.

872 WC: “New Zealand and its inhabitants,” p 390. Moreover this idea is taken from Lang’s strange book, “On the origin of the Polynesian nation,” p. 67, (London, 1834,)— though there it is carried further and is still worse!—but then Lang knew nothing of the Maoris.

873 WC: It is also the term for a ship in the Hervey Islands, by dropping the h, (not used there,)—pai for pahi.

874 WC: In writing on Polynesian nomenclature I may observe, that Pora (Pola) is also the term in the Sandwich Islands for the high platform seat for chiefs between a double canoe:—in Fiji it is the name given to a war-canoe from another laud (Bola):—in Samoa, Pola is the name for plaited matting of cocoa-nut leaves, used to shut in a house;—also, as a verb, to carry flat on such a piece of matting—as a cooked pig, &c. [Here we have again in another form the Maori idea of flatness (supra); with the Maoris, also, a coarse kind of platted matting for floors, &c., is called pora.] In the Tonga isles the same word (bola) is used for the leaf of the cocoa-nut plaited for thatching and other purposes; and (bolavaka) for a similar covering for canoes,—which, I suppose, is extended horizontally over them, as was formerly the case in N.Z. I mention. all this briefly, as showing the oneness of idea, root, or family connection existing between the several languages.

875 WC: See Transactions N.Z. Institute, Vol. XI., p. 87, for this strange and complete legend translated by me.

876 WC: K. here throughout, means kaipuke.

877 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. I.,” Vol. X. p. 151, for examples of this use of the word.

878 WC: Meryta Sinclairii, Hand-book N.Z. Flora.

879 WC: It is not generally known, that Sir J.E. Smith purchased the whole of the Museum, Library, and Papers of Linnæus, and made a present of them to the Linnæan Society, London.

880 WC: “Introduction to Botany,” 7th ed., p. 192.

881 WC: And in the School Book the children are expressly told, that “Capt. Cook named it Hawke Bay.” (p. 75.)

882 Where the Cook’s Strait cable is landed on the S. side.

883 WC: “But names derived from particular countries or districts are liable to much exception, few plants being sufficiently local to justify their use.” (Sir J.E. Smith, l.c., p.191.)

884 WC: I may add, in a note, that I have always endeavoured to follow this rule, which has also been closely observed in the Flora N.Z. and by others: e.g. Hymenophyllum Frankliniarum, Asplenium Hookerianum, Clematis Parkinsoniana, &c.—

885 WC: In English thus:—Sweet-root (Liquorice), Everlasting-flower, Sun-flower, Beauty-of-a-day (Day-lily).

886 Rome stands on ancient mores. Ennius.

887 WC: See page 12 for an example in Discaria Toumatou.

888 WC: See “Trans. N.Z. Inst.” Vol. X., p. l09 Vol. XII., p. 365.

889 WC: Written, too, at a time when Napoleon I was in all his glory! How different now!!

890 WC: In English thus:—meadow, field, wood, and forest, Melanpyrum, and sand, marsh, and wood Carex.

891 The 26 March 1864 New Zealander letter was reprinted in the Hawke’s Bay Times of 13 May 1864, and is reproduced in Give your thoughts life in this series.

892 Lord Macaulay was born in 1800, died in 1859.

893 H.K. White, born 1785; died, 1806.

894 Shelley, born, 1792; died (drowned), 1823.

895 WC: More properly, this French Expedition of two frigates (Recherche and Esperance), was commanded by General D’Entrecasteaux; M. J.J Labillardiere being the Naturalist on board, who wrote the account of the Voyage.

896 WC: The narrative of the Voyage is excellently well written, it gives a pleasing account of their interview with the New Zealanders at North Cape; and of their sojourn among the hospitable Tasmanians, (indeed, it contains the best account that I know, of an early visit to that unfortunate race!)—it contains many plates of new and interesting objects; and it abounds in discoveries in many branches of Natural Science, particularly in Botany. Several of our New Zealand plants bear the honoured name of this early intrepid Naturalist. He discovered and described the Blue Gum tree (Eucalyptus globulus), with other species of that genus. His name is also perpetuated in his large work on the Botany of New Holland, or Australia, then an unknown Country to Europe and the civilized world (Novæ Hollandiæ Plantarum Specimen, 2 vols. 4to.) –

897 The Alexander Turnbull Library copy of this paper has a handwritten endnote by Colenso, and two pages of a letter dated 5 February 1885 from a Napier correspondent. Colenso’s note reads, “Since writing the above, I have also noticed in Pope’s ‘Windsor Forest’ the following lines:–
‘The time shall come, when free as seas or wind,
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind,
Whole nations enter with each swelling tide,
And seas but join the regions they divide;
Earth’s distant ends our glory shall behold,
And the new world launch forth to seek the old.
Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide,
And feather’d people crowd my wealthy side;
And naked youths and painted chiefs admire,
Our speech, our colour, and our strange attire. l.397.

The letter refers to Anna Lætitia Barbauld’s poem ‘Eighteen hundred and eleven” (1811) in which an ingenuous youth visits the ruins of London: “Mrs Barbauld’s lines … could not have escaped Macaulay, who never forgot what he had read.”

898 WC: Two of those 5 species found in New Zealand (as given in the “Handbook”) are also found in other countries, and are so classed by the authors of the Syn. Hep.; and one other (S. sub-simplex) was new and not known to them at the time of its publication.

899 WC: The numbers in this paper attached to both Orders and Genera are those of the “Handbook of the New Zealand Flora.”

900 Included in Viola cunninghamii Hook.f.

901 Metrosideros perforata (J.R.Forst. et G.Forst.) A.Rich.

902 WC: “Voyage de l’Astrolabe, Botanique,” p. 334.

903 Possibly Raukaua anomalus (Hook.) A.D.Mitchell, Frodin et Heads.

904 Tupeia antarctica (G.Forst.) Cham. et Schltdl.

905 Coprosma rhamnoides A.Cunn.

906 Nertera setulosa Hook.f.

907 Galium propinquum A.Cunn.

908 Stet.

909 Stet.

910 Stet.

911 Utricularia dichotoma Labill.

912 Nothofagus apiculata (Colenso) Cockayne.

913 WC: See “Tasmanian Journal of Science,” vol. ii., p. 234.

914 Adelopetalum tuberculatum (Colenso) D.L.Jones, M.A.Clem. et Molloy.

915 Nematoceras hypogaea (Col.) Molloy, DL Jones & MA Clem.

916 Nematoceras papillosa (Col.) Molloy, DL Jones & MA Clem. Identification uncertain, related to N. macranthum.

917 Stet.

918 Stet.

919 Collospermum spicatum (Colenso) Skottsberg.

920 WC: See “Transactions N.Z. Institute,” vol. xiv., p. 335, for a description of the female plant.

921 Machaerina sinclairii (Hook.f.) T.Koyama.

922 Possibly Uncinia uncinata (L.f.) Kük.

923 Inc. sed.

924 Stet.

925 Chionochloa conspicua (G.Forst.) Zotov subsp. cunninghamii (Hook.f.) Zotov.

926 Sticherus flabellatus (R.Br.) H.St.John.

927 Gleichenia microphylla R.Br.

928 Lindsaea linearis Sw.

929 Blechnum membranaceum (Hook.) Diels.

930 Hypolepis rufobarbata (Colenso) N.A.Wakef.

931 Lycopodiella lateralis (R.Br.) B.Øllg.

932 Encalypta vulgaris Hedw.

933 Not found. The name Gottschea is ambiguous.

934 Symphyogyna hymenophyllum (Hook.) Mont. et Nees.

935 Symphyogyna prolifera Colenso.

936 Symphyogyna hymenophyllum (Hook.) Mont. et Nees.

937 Symphyogyna hymenophyllum (Hook.) Mont. et Nees.

938 Not found.

939 Not found.

940 Hymenophyton flabellatum (Labill.) Trevis.

941 Hymenophyton leptopodum (Hook.f. et Taylor) Steph.

942 Stet.

943 Symphyogyna hymenophyllum (Hook.) Mont. et Nees.

944 Not found.

945 Riccardia alba (Colenso) E.A.Brown.

946 Riccardia bipinnatifida (Colenso) Hewson.

947 Riccardia australis (Lehm) Hewson.

948 Aneura alterniloba (H. & T.) Tayl.

949 Not found.

950 Asterella gracilis (F. Weber) Underw.

951 Asterella tenera (Mitt.) R.M.Schust.

952 Stet.