Maori Palms.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 6

Maori Palms.

Dear Sir,—As a southern visitor to your city I enjoyed the winter garden in my rambles on Sunday, but one thing puzzled me. There is a huge specimen of a New Zealand palm which, I take it, must come from the far north, or it would not grow in a hot-house. The botanical name was there, but not the Maori name. I don't suppose it was the nikau palm, which I remember to have seen, much smaller, but is there a specimen of this palm in Christchurch, and what is the Maori name of the one in the winter garden?—l am. etc., CURIOUS (II ). The Curator of the Botanical Gardens (Mr J. A. MPherson) states that the nikau palm, of which there is a good specimen of about 6ft in the winter garden, labelled with its Maori name (nikau). is the only palm native to New Zealand. The correspondent, he thought, was confusing the nikau with some of the bigger palms from Lord Howe Island, which, of course, had no Maori names. Many specimens of palms from Lord Howe Island were growing in the hot-house.