The Rata in Flower

'This is the monarch of the New Zealand forest, generally as large as the largest English oaks. It is originally a parasite, winding several coils round other trees until it has killed them and taken their place. The dead tree gradually rots, thus leaving the trunk of the rata hollow. In the end of the summer, each twig is covered with this flower, so that the whole forest bears a crimson tinge. This tree resembles the oak in its gnarled limbs, and is therefore much sought after by ship-builders for the knees and timbers of their vessels.' (Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Illustrations to Adventure in New Zealand from 1839 to 1844; with some account of the beginning of British colonization of the islands. Plate XIV, no.2).

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