Artwork Information

'The leaves grow out of the ground to heights varying from three to twelve feet. The flax-like fibre is obtained from the leaf by scraping it with a mussel-shell. The flowers are full of syrup. Each plant has generally two or three flower-stems, and from thirty to forty leaves.'

(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 XV).