NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15730, 3 October 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

ItT -jajj.es mtciuioxn, f.1.5., f.z.s.

The oi'der of the lily is well represented in iho flora of this Dominion. Nobody, linked could quarrel with New Zealand ii ."-he had taken the lily instead of the fun-lea! for her emblem. She might have done this on utilitarian as v.ell as sentimental grounds, for one of her lilies i* ranked amongst the useful plants of the world. It if. the common flax, which, villi tli.' exception of timber trees, is V ■■■■ Zealand's most important economic i.'.,;,;. Si ir-nti"it.» are nut always very happy in electing names for animals and ! !,ns, lit)! " I'hormiiim tenax" if. quite. ■.; i'i ■ >j>- i,n<i to tho flax. '1 he former word i- I'loin I'hornics, the (lieek for basket, a ..'I the hitter is from tho Latin tenax, holding fast. Ii it. had not been for tho f,io, many ■>! the Maoris' arts and crafts \' old not have developed, but it also ent'l'il i::i<- the sentimental relationship I" ivrrn the yi.-uiij; people. A young man v I:.; -.vi.v'vd to propose cul a leaf of flax j a i I made on ;• a double slipknot, which. if niijli-d tightly, became one large single knot. 11. handed the knot to his sweetiif.iit, who, if he had found acceptance .ii her sight, drew the two knots into one. I i :h»t way she symbolised the union of : -i heart?. I f'<* cabbage-tree—most, ineptly named c! plants— la New Zealand's most con- J .-■; 'j. us lily. Its scientific name is Cor- ■ Mine, the Greek for club. There are ■ me New Zealandcrs who wish to see i ■(■ popular name discarded in fav<ur ",' aim lily, whi..h i.-, more" appropi into .-.:■ well ,v, prettier. Investigators h.. - . e tried to discover the persons who ii. m ia.ii>.l this plant a cabbage-tree. In me publication.- it is staled tiiat tho : amo was given by early settlers, who • ' mil in the voting and tender heads a ■ hstituto tor cabbage. There is little ' s-m bianco between the two plants, howe' rr, and apparently Captain Cook must, hear the blame for having imposed upon .his large, stately and beautiful lily a name reminiscent of the kitchen garden. In his journal, describing his stay at I'-I.iga Bay, about forty miles north of ''isborne, in October, 1769, ho says:— Ihe tree which we cut- for firing was something like maple, and yielded a whitish gum. Wo likewise found one cabbage-tree, which we cut down for the hake nl the cabbage.

Iho cabbagc-tree. perhaps, is the lar p«t illy in the world. No plant is more u-iUKious of life, It is stated that if, Him a trunk is being felled, a chip falls into a damp place, it. will root and bud. A story is told of a dumdigger in the n-.rth of Auckland who used the trunks 01 cabba.ge.tws for the. chiranev <f lis hut. Ho set the. trunks side bv side in a trench and nailed them together. A in« was kept alight in the chimnev continuously for several months, and the trunks wrro burned through, only pieces of the outer bark being left. The digger changed his place of residence, and n a eh >rt time the blackened chimney »-.?vived ami became living green wood. " Another < .iHbaire-treo story is worth telling, f?rmo trunks were cut down and were thrown over a fence on to the shingly beach of a reek. They remained there for <glit months, sometimes being rolled over in the salt water, sometimes baking in the Hin. An exceptionally high tide lifted them over the fence and bacl; into the paddock again. They immediately sent, out (heir rootlets into the soil and soon were budding vigorously. The cabbagetrie, in fact, does not know when it is beaten. It is like the persevering frog in the fable, who fell jnto a bowl of milk and was in danger of drowning, but kept on paddling with bis limbs, until bis struggles made a pat of butter, upon «hich ho found refuge. His companion, vbo fell in with him, and who relinquished all hopo at ones, was drowned.

The Maori onion is another lily. It t ould bo better to give it its scientific name. Bulbinella. It likes lowland and sub-alpine pastures, and, by its bright yellow, asphodel-like (lowers, from October to January, beautifies mountain districts from Lake Taupo and Mount Egmont southwards. Its habitat extends limn the sea level to an altitude of nearly 5000 feet. It is a sturdy plant, usually between a foot and two feet high, hut sometimes three feet, and sometimes dwarfed to as many inches. On the Auckland and Campbell* Islands there is a larger species of Bulbinella. A visitor to Campbell Island states that in some districts there it form* so large a part of the vegetation, ai»- produces its goldenyeliow " flowers so abundantly, that its presence innv he noted more than half .i mile from Hie shore. It is a great con--11 ast to yet another New Zealand lily. This, of all plaits in the world, is the supplejack, well known to all who spend much time in forests of mixed plants, ■"•here it hangs thirty or forty feet from the branches of a gigantic tree, makes natural swings, and often retarding propress. On open ground in many parts i•:' New Zealand, from Cape Colville to 1-ovenux Strait, there may be found a small lily, about seven inches high, with soft leaves, tiny white flow<- s, and tasBcllcd stamens, and filaments bearing fi::)K and orange hairs. It is tho white Arthropod!urn. There is little superficial i"'»robf'inee between the cabbage-tree, the supplejack, the Artliropodiimi, the 1 iv uf the-valley, the tulip, and the hyofiiith, but all belong to the great order I.ilincrae. 'Die New Zealand members of the order aro not arrayed in scarlet and purple; none is sufficiently gorgeous to be compared with Solomon in his glory; hut wit of them have a quiet, restrained beauty, and nil will repay those who study tile p;ronp —who consider the lilies, how they grow.

The typical genus of the order is Lilium, and in it arc the .Madonna, or white lily (Lilium candidum), the tiger lily) 11 milium tigrinumi, and an exceptionally fine species in North America, Lilium iperliinu, which grows in marshes. Its stem is six or eight icet high, and it ) as orange flowers, spotted with black. Llinm auratum is 'mo of the noblest .'.!"•:■. The tig lily tamo originally from ' lima, the Turk's cap (Lilium Martagon) ti"in the South "I Europe. There are .i fterent opinions m regard to the idem ',:■. of " ihe lilies of tho field" referred .'by our Saviour, but tho comparison 1., ••em them ami Solomon's royal robes ha.-, led students I" believe that they ar.i i '"nt :f.-i.l with a. red lily of Syria, or with a red anemone that 'dots the hillsides of Galilee in the spring. The lilyof I he-valley, (anvallaria majalis, which Krai-en main New Zealand gardens, and is found wild in wood*, in Europe, is the " Maiblm.ie," or Mayflower, of the Germans Our allies, 'the French, have . lanncd tlio lily on a national flower. While England has the rose, Scotland the thistle mid Ireland the shamrock, France h.i< the lily, w,liicli from old times lias 'en emblematic of parity and (hastily. It is the Madonna lily that the Ficnch repieicnt, on their coat-of-arms. There is a legend that all angel presented n specimen to the founder of the Prankish mon-.-mil/ at Iks baptism, and it is believed • n France that at the proclamation of later Prankish kings th" figure of a lily in blopsom was iu>ed instead of a, pceptre.

Ihron American airmen bare entered for Inn air rare round tiio world which is lifing organised in connection with the Panama-Pnrifio Exposition at San Frantjwn ne\-( j-nar. I'i.zc.p amounting to over £100.000 liavn betn offered. The time allowed for the journey is 121 days. A < ".'iip"tilor may have an entirely new Duii'liinn ,-,i eve.iv 1000 miles. It at any P'jjni hi- prefers to i mrs the. gealiy hoot he. will h' penality] £4 a mile for the first pri.w 24-. for the he<*>nd prize, and 12s for " third. One of the entrants is Captain He -tor Warden, a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, who terved for a year a& an airman m the Mcxic&n '' war."