"MANUKA, DEAR FLOWER."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 285, 1 December 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

"MANUKA, DEAR FLOWER."

By L. M. CRANWELL, M.A.. Botanist, Auckland Museum.

RAIN plays on the manuka, warmly and softly, freeing a sharp aroma from the wee oreen leaves. The campfire, too, sends that unforgettable fragrance on the :iir in a tangle of pearl grey smoke. Yon will remember how often yon have tried to dodge the drift of that as night feW in the dark »kule. It hurts the eyes then, but it hurts the memory so much more, they say, when the carefree days in the open are over, or when the long, oiey ocean of Kiwa separates one from youth, and . the friends of youth, and all the jolly days when manuka gave a scented bunk, firing, and a. feast for the eyes by seashore, river, lake, and windy ridge. Scent of the Flower. But sweeter and rarer than these is the scent of the flower. Some books deny it, but to each of you it will come, if you go out on the hills in mid-summer. Ifc does not rise high, and it is not strong, but it is very, very dainty—not opulent and over-bearing as the scent of the taller manuka-rauriki can be on such a day. Both are in bloom now. The tiny-leaved species has only just begun to flower, and you will find it by river banks, a tall, shapely tree with thick bark and a dense round head, green above (or creamy white when in full blossom), but dark underneath amongst the dead twige. It grows on poorer soil, too,' but •it always seem 3 most handsome on these river flats. Its trunks commonly grow to a large size, and the rather pale brown timber which earns it, rather confusingly, the name of "white tea-tree," has been put to many uses. Axe handles and wheel spokes made from it have proved strong and elastic, and you know how, just like its cousin the rata, it is used for fuel. It is of special interest to us because it is found nowhere else in the world, that is, it is "endemic" to New Zealand. Its lovelier relative, the manuka, whose scent and beauty mean home to us, grows in Australia and Tasmania as well, but'whether it has taken such a hold of the imagination of Australians I cannot say. Perhaps we are more sentimental than they (though I think that unlikely), <so that we look eagerly for the first blossom of the mighty spring flowering, and never weary of all the pink and white freshness" that unfolds month by month, so that, almost always, there is somewhere a manuka in bloom. This morning I took a »wrong turning, and before I thought to back