NATIVE TREES

Grey River Argus, 6 September 1939, Page 3

NATIVE TREES

CO TO COLLEGE. In the Botanical Gardens, Wellington, there Is a special section devoteu to native trees in the hope that it will increase the interest of New Zealanders in the plants of their own country, but there is one puzzling omission in the scheme. The botanical titles are conspicuously painted on boards, but the Maori names are missing, so some visitors may not know that rhopalostylis sapida is a nikau, that sophora tetraptera is a kowhia, that metrosideros tomentosa is a pohutukawa and that cyathea medullaris is a mamaku (black tree-fern). Of course, those trees would be recognis-i ed by many people, but there are others, similarly tabbed with Greek or Latin names, not nearly sq well known. The average citizen is more interested in the native names than in the botanical “jawbreakers.”