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THE LEAF-FIBRE OF NEV.' ZEALAND FLAX. 47
scribe it as secreted by the base of the leaf (or leaf-sheatli), and it was
certainly there that I found it myself in any quantity. The gum in
question resembles gum arable in some of its properties, and as a
substitute, therefore, it is used by the settlers.
It becomes invested with a high degree of interest in connection
with the preparation of the ilax fibre ; for to it all testimony has
hitherto concurred in ascribing the main difficulty in the separation
and utilization of the latter. This gum also bears the reputation, in
some parts of the colony, of being poisonous to cattle.* Were the
New Zealand Flax plant extensively cultivated for the sake of its fibre,
it is probable this gum might be separated and utilized.
The flowers secrete a watery honey, a familiar dainty of the settlers
of all ages, of some of which I have frequently partaken while wading
in the llax-jungles of Otago. On the first evolution of the flower, the
large tubular perianth is found full to the brim of a clear, sweet fluid ;
at the same time the anthers are most copiously discharging their
pollen,—so that the faces of the juveniles or adults who drain the
flower-cups by direct application of their lips, generally bear the marks
of that procedure in the yellow pollen-dust which adheres to their
eyebrows, or besmears their faces. The plant contains 1 to 1 j
per cent, of Grape sugar, as well as a pure intense bitter princii)lc ;
and these, when a strong infusion is subjected to fermentation (addi-
tional sugar being supplied) with yeast, yield a kind of bitter beer
(Skey).t The bitter principle, the same chemist further suggests,
might be used as a substitute for hops in communicating a bitter fla-
vour to ordinary beer. J
The root is said to be purgative, diuretic, sudorific, expectorant, and
to possess the properties of sarsaparilla (Buchanan). So lately as
December, 1862, I find it recorded in the ' Tarawaki Herald,' that for
a virulent epidemic of smallpox at Kawliia on the west coast of
Auckland, and Mokan in Taranaki, the native doctors were using with
success an ointment made by boiling the root-ends of flax leaves to a
pulp. The seeds, also, are said to have been used medicinally by the
natives.
* T^ide my paper on "The Toot Plant and Poison of 'New Zealand," Brit,
and For. Medioo-Chirurg. Review, July, 1865, p. 176.
t Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1SG5, p. 433.
X Ibid.