In company with my friend, Lieutenant Breton, R. N., I visited Elizabeth Bay, about two miles distant from Sydney, and the property of the Honourable Alexander Macleay. The situation is beautiful, being in a retired bay or cove of Port Jackson, and the garden and farm is near the sea. This spot, naturally of the most sterile description, has been rendered, at a great expense and perseverance, in some degree productive as a nursery for rare trees, shrubs, and plants, from all parts of the world. We were much gratified with the valuable and rare specimens the garden contained, and surprised that a spot possessed of no natural advantages should have been rendered, comparatively, a little paradise.
In the garden, a species of cactus was pointed out to me by the gardener, Mr. Henderson, which Mr. Macleay had brought some years ago from Rio Janeiro: it had flowered at the usual time, and they had changed into what had the usual external form of the fruit. On making a section of one, it had the usual fructual character, although in an immature state. I was, however, informed that the fruit never attained maturity, but became as one of the branches, blossoms being produced from it, which would again produce fruit, and that fruit would not ripen, but again produce flowers, so continuing during the whole of the flowering season, without ripening any fruit, having consequently a curious anomaly of fruit producing flowers, instead of flowers producing fruit. It has always, during the time it has been planted in the garden, exhibited this phenomenon, which was never observed in the plant from which this was taken at Rio. It must therefore be considered as a curious anomaly in vegetation.
The greatest importer and manufacturer of New Zealand flax[32] in the colony is Mr. Maclaren. I visited his extensive establishment, which had just been completed on the north shore near Sydney, for the cleaning and manufacture of the flax into rope. He has also establishments at New Zealand, from whence he imports the flax, exporting some to England, and manufacturing the remainder into cordage for the use of the colonial vessels. He has also a powerful hydraulic press, for the purpose of compressing the flax into bales for exportation. He manufactures from this material a large quantity of whale lines for the colonial whalers, who speak in high terms of the quality of the rope, for that purpose. The rope manufactured from this flax, takes the tar readily, and the small lines are passed through it previous to their being made into rope of larger size.[33]
As I hope the time is not far distant when its value will be more appreciated, and the prejudice, at present so much against it, will have diminished, I may perhaps be excused in giving an account of this valuable plant from my own observations during a visit to New Zealand.
This valuable plant is regarded by the natives of New Zealand as sacred, but is probably an object of veneration for its value in manufactures, as it is neither employed in religious or other ceremonies. It grows principally in moist, marshy soil, but I have also observed it growing on the declivities of hills. The leaves are ensiform, of a bright green colour, with a rim of orange along the margin: the foliage attains the elevation of five to seven feet, and resembles in mode of growth our water flags: the flower stalk rises to the elevation of four or five feet beyond the foliage, and bears a profusion of liliaceous flowers of a reddish yellow colour, succeeded by triangular capsules, filled with numerous oblong, flattened, black seeds. The leaves grow perfectly erect, but are figured incorrectly in Cook’s first voyage, and other works, as they are delineated bending towards the ground, which from their rigidity they are, unless broken, unable to do. The flax procured from this plant is situated (unlike all other kinds with which we are acquainted) in the leaves, where the fibres run in a longitudinal direction, covered by the epidermis. There are several varieties of it indigenous to New Zealand, from some of which the flax is procured of much finer quality than others. I collected much finer specimens of the flax from the vicinity of the River Thames, New Zealand, than from the Bay of Islands.
The flax is used by the natives of New Zealand for a variety of purposes; from it they manufacture very strong fishing-lines, and also a variety of handsome and durable mats, which are used both by males and females for clothing. The method adopted by the natives of New Zealand, for the separation of the fibre from the other parts of the leaf, is as follows:—The leaves, when full grown, are cut down, the most perfect selected, and a lateral incision is made with a shell on each side of the leaf, so as simply to cut through the epidermis; the shell is then, with a gentle pressure, drawn from one of the incisions rapidly down the leaf, and is afterwards repeated on the other side; by this, the whole of the external epidermis is readily removed; the internal epidermis, which is of very thin texture, usually remains, but sometimes it is in the greatest part removed together with the external: the internal seems to unite the fibres of the leaf more intimately together, and if not cleaned from the flax when in a recent state, is removed afterwards with great difficulty; and when it is suffered to remain, renders the flax less valuable as an article of commerce.
In the preparation of the flax, as well as in the manufacture of it into matting, the females are employed, and custom renders them very expert. Before, however, the flax is manufactured into matting, it is previously soaked in water, and afterwards beaten, by which it becomes more pliable and soft. The plant is named koradi by the natives; and when the flax is prepared, it is named muka. This plant alone would render New Zealand a valuable colony to the British nation. At present the flax is used in England only in the manufacture of cordage, &c.; but if the best varieties, indigenous to New Zealand, were selected, (for they differ materially in the fineness of the fibre,) and proper care and attention bestowed on the cleaning, when in a recent state, it may, there can be no doubt, be employed in the manufacture of linen of very fine quality.