IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18762, 16 January 1923, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

■>MV ZEALAND’S NIGHTSHADES. By J. Dbummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. A native plant that, is in bloom now, and slnuilil continue in bloom until the autumn is worth close attention on account of a peculiarity in the colours of its flowers. It belongs to the family of the nightshades. Its Maori name, poroporo, has been corrupted by settlers, inexcusably, into “bullibull.’’ Botanicully it is Solatium nvicularo. it is a leafy shrub, with loaves occasionally ten incites long. It grows in both islands. Its flowers usually are dark purple, but individual plants are found sometimes with white flowers. More than 20 years ago, Mr T. F. Cheeseman, Auckland, noted that individuals at Buekland, Mnnakau County, with white flowers had a different

aspect from that of individuals with purple flowers. Later, Mr W. Townson, examining the species at Pukokohe, Franklin Country, found that no individuals with purple flowers over produced a white flower, and that individuals with white flowers have pale green leaves, much thinner and more delicate in texture than the loaves of purpleflowered individuals, and have a slenderer and more graceful appearance. When seeds of white-flowered individuals, collected by Air J. Graham, were planted in the Pat-u----mrihoe school garden,. about 30 plants were raised, and all hud white flowers and other characters of white-flowered individuals. ’I lie facts lead Mr Cheeseman to believe that the white-flowered New Zealand Solaiiuni is a stable variety, and should bo distinguished by a name of its own. Further observations, probably, will confirm this opinion.

A comparison between the flowers of the poroporo and the flowers of the potato, Solatium, tuberosum, which came originally Lorn the Cordilleras of Peru and Chili, proves a close relationship between those plants, in spite of the fact that their native countries are far apart. Another Now Zealand nightshade, Solatium nignum, the black nightshade, is a cosmopolitan. It is one of tne world's weeds. Its range in New Zealand, where it is fairly plentiful, extends from North Cape to Contra) Otago. Its small while drooping flowers, in evidence throughout the New Zealand summer, contrast with its black, sometimes red, berries. Although thescr are used for farts in the Old Country, botanical text-books state that they arc a virulent poison.

Ihe tobacco plant, Nicotiana Tabacum, which occasionally escapes from cultivation in rich warm soils in the North Island, is on the list of introduced members of the nightshade family that have established themselves in New Zealand; also (ho Cape gooseberry and the henbane. The kumara, ipomoea batatas, sometimes known as the ‘sweet potato,” is not a potato, but a member of the convolvulus family. It is not in the list, of native New' Zealand nlants, as botanists agree that the Maoris introduced it from Polynesia during their migrations several hundred' years ago. Once their chief vegetable food, it still js grown fairly extensive by them in the North Island. Its native country is uncertain. A connection of it, Ipomoea palmata, is a twiner with lovely purple flowers, darker in the centre than at the edges, which beautify the Kermadco Islands and sea cliffs from the North Cape to the Bay of Islands and Hokianga from December to April.

A geological visit to the Great Barrier Inland has convinced Mr J. A. Bartrum, Auckland, that it formerly was a continuation of Coromandel Peninsula. Ho describes it as a nigged, elevated, much-dis-sected mountain mass, about 24 miles long a-nd varying up to 13 miles wide. Rhyolite lavas lend themselves to the evolution of weird pinnacled crags and sheer precipices which, with alluring whiteness, give a fascinating picluiesriuencss to the landscape carved from thorn. Islets and reefs that thickly fringe the shore-line represent extensions or land masses not yet cut down by the attacks of the waves. On the. western side, “youthful, precipitous, lofty cliffs form an immature coast, except where they are interrupted temporarily by bays, and by deep, narrow entrances to the wonderful and beautiful Fitzroy Harbour. He found streams actively building deltas at til© heads of bays, hut noted tne absence, oven in land-locked Fitzroy Harbour, of the mangrove-dotted rnud-flats common in most North Auckland harbours.

On the eastern side, the coast, which is more exposed to the waves there than on the western side, has been cut back much more regularly. Former!)/ several harbours similar to Fitzroy Harbour were on the last, but they have been shut off from the open sea by spits of barrier beaches. J.lte lagoons formed by the process have been largely obliterated by blown sand as swamp, or some other filling. Mr Bartrum was impressed by a conspicuous feature of the landscape ou the northern wall of the Awana Valley. Seen from open country near the top of a ridge, at a distance of little loss than a quarter of a mile, it looks like a great vertical wall, probably 100 ft high, built of horizontal columns, apparently of rhyolite.

A correspondent, who does not supply his name, confirms Mr L. M. Monckton’s statements that, some Maoris have a snpersbtious dread of green lizards. He states that there is a belief amongst them still that souls of departed Maoris travel as lizards to To Roinga, Spirits’ Bay, and from cliffs there leap into the other world, trio knows of miners who were bothered by inquisitive Maoris, and who kept (hem off by tethering a lizard in the drive. Otago and Southland Maoris did not give Mr H. Beattie, of Gore, much satisfaction when ho asked them as to their feelings towards lizards. An old man said to him, “I never heard of the tamtam here, but I have seen a lizard two feet long. It was on (he top

o[ one o f the Hokanui Hills. Because J had had a bad dream the night before, I killed it with a big stone, lighted a lire and burnt it. It was the biggest lizn.-d I ever saw. An old man told mo afterwards that I was wise to kill and burn it. as it prevented any evil happening to me on account of my dream. Some of the old Maons used lizards for food. They made pets of the lizards, which came when their names were called, and which slept alongside their owners. A pet lizard, To Horomokai, was kept at a village near Kaitangata, but was lost.” The lizard about dtl long, probably was a tuatara, or an exaggeration.

Mr Llsdon Best states that the tuatara was the only reptile eaten by Tuhoe Maoris before Europeans oamo. They had >no superstitious feeling towards tins' tuatara or the mokomoko, which, apparently, j 8 the small common brown lizard, found usually under stones and logs, but, strangely, it was regarded as an evil omen to see any other species of lizard. They believed that tnataras were produced by birds. One species of lizard was believed to be the parent of the shining cuckoo. Lizards sometimes were selected us guardians of property in luhoeland. apparently on account of the fear they caused. A lizard was placed in a tree much frequented by birds, to warn oil poachers. Some places were noted for (ho numbers of tuatara.s they produced 1 uataraa wore collected at Mount Edgecumbo placed in baskets, taken alive to the village, and cooked and eaten; but the tood seems to have been reserved for men. ns a belief was held flint if women tasted it they would be attacked by many tuataras, and, probably, would perish.