Toi Toi Grass

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 9, 2 January 1890, Page 3

Toi Toi Grass

Both white people and Maoris who have been the observers of nature in the colony, have remarked on the luxuriant growth of the toi toi, arundo conspiciia, as well as the phormiuui tenax and the profuse blossoming of the cabbage trse, Cnnlyline Australis, in special seasons. The present season is one of those when the flax flowering stems, combined with the bright leaves of the plant, together with the feathery nodding or pendulous fronicles, on low undulating hills or fringes of water- courses, furnish choice bits of pretty pictures in the landscape As the flax flower and the toi toi's feathery heads come in bloom before the grain. harvest, a prolific appearance io: these indigenous plants is a sure >. and certain sigu of a bountiful harvest. We suppose that when nature is kind to them, the same elements in the state of the atmosphere contribute towards the productiveness of our cereal crops. Whilst the heads of the toi toi grass are so plentiful on the sand drives and margins of the streams, we learn a new industry has sprung up among persons who are cutting and dying them in various shades of color for decorations. Some very pretty designs can thus be made at a trifling expense, which assist the decorator at this season to a considerable extent.— Ghristchureh Telegraph.