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.