. Plants of New Zealand. surfaces of leaves covered with short, dense white 1 in. long, variable in shape, with recurved margins. Flowers inlarge terminal cymes, brilliant scarlet. Buds snow-white, woolly, petals small,scarlet, stamens long, scarlet. Capsule woody, 3-lobed and Island: cliffs on the sea-coast. PL Maori namePohuhikmva. M. tomentosa rarely grows far from the sea or an inlandlake. It finds a foothold in all sorts of impossible lookingplates. Often it clings to the side of a cliff, and puts forthlong twisted roots that attach i
. Plants of New Zealand. surfaces of leaves covered with short, dense white 1 in. long, variable in shape, with recurved margins. Flowers inlarge terminal cymes, brilliant scarlet. Buds snow-white, woolly, petals small,scarlet, stamens long, scarlet. Capsule woody, 3-lobed and Island: cliffs on the sea-coast. PL Maori namePohuhikmva. M. tomentosa rarely grows far from the sea or an inlandlake. It finds a foothold in all sorts of impossible lookingplates. Often it clings to the side of a cliff, and puts forthlong twisted roots that attach it to the rocky wall. Specimensmay frequently be found hanging from the top of a bank,with the roots above, and the branches almost dipping intothe sea below. Oysters may sometimes be gathered fromthese pendent branches. When growing on level ground,great bunches of red, fibrous rootlets may occasionally be seenhanging from the boughs. These do not reach the ground,^nd their function is unknown. THE MYRTLE FAMILY 285>. Fig. 91. Metrosideros lomentosa (§ nat. size). 286 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND The usual habitat of the pohutukawa is well described inthe following lines :— The stony faces of the cliffs thus rent• Showed twisted strata, strangely earthquake bent,Running on each side circularly up—A great grey hollow like a broken cup !From crest and crevice, tortuously flungThose monstrous iron-hearted myrtles hung—Stiff snaky writhing trunks, and roots that claveAnd crawled to any hold the ramparts gave. Ranolf and Amohia, i). 474. Thus Domett, with his affluence of epithet, describes thetree as it clings to its rocky stronghold. Surely it was somevague perception of its fantastic shape and ocean-lovingnature, that led the Maoris to think that a bough ofpohutukawa was the last earthly hand-hold of the spirit whenit leapt off from the world above into Keinga (the under-world). For it was believed by them in olden times, that theghosts of the dead travelled northward along
Size: 1403px × 1781px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectplants, bookyear1906
