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A group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. New Zealand flax. (a) (Bot.) A tall, liliaceous herb (Phormium tenax), having very long, sword-shaped, distichous leaves which furnish a fine, strong fiber very valuable for cordage and the like. (b) The fiber itself. -- New Zealand tea (Bot.), a myrtaceous shrub (Leptosp…

A fossil resin occurring in large masses in New Zealand.

A genus of New Zealand birds about the size of a hen, with only short rudiments of wings, armed with a claw and without a tail; the kiwi. It is allied to the gigantic extinct moas of the same country. Five species are known.

of gigantic cephalopods, allied to the squids, found esp. in the North Atlantic and about New Zealand.

A large edible fresh-water fish of Australia and New Zealand (Thyrsites atun).

coast, the Epinephelus punctatus of the southern coast, the rock eel, and the kelpfish of New Zealand.

A New Zealand plover (Anarhynchus frontalis), remarkable for having the end of the beak abruptly bent to the right.

A genus of extinct, ostrichlike birds of gigantic size, which formerly inhabited New Zealand. See Moa. [Written also Deinornis.]

A genus of shrubs, natives of Australia, New Zealand, etc., having pretty white, red, or purple blossoms, and much resembling heaths.

pins flax. [Obs.] (b) A prostitute. [Obs.] Shak. -- Mountain flax (Min.), amianthus. -- New Zealand flax (Bot.) See Flax-plant.

A plant in new Zealand (Phormium tenax), allied to the lilies and aloes. The leaves are two inches wide and several feet long, and furnish a fiber which is used for making ropes, mats, and coarse cloth.

A name applied in New Zealand to the scabbard fish (Lepidotus) valued as a food fish.

A large and valuable food fish (Polyprion prognathus) of New Zealand. It sometimes weighs one hundred pounds or more.

A New Zealand lizard, which, in anatomical character, differs widely from all other existing lizards. It is the only living representative of the order Rhynchocephala, of which many Mesozoic fossil species are known; -- called also Sphenodon, and Tuatera.

A New Zealand starling (Heteralocha acutirostris), remarkable for the great difference in the form and length of the bill in the two sexes, that of the male being sharp and straight, that of the female much longer and strongly curved.

A New Zealand parrot of the genus Nestor, especially the brown parrot (Nestor meridionalis).

A singular nocturnal parrot (Strigops habroptilus), native of New Zealand. It lives in holes during the day, but is active at night. It resembles an owl in its colors and general appearance. It has large wings, but can fly only a short distance. Called also owl parrot, night parrot, and night kaka.

The fossil resin of the kauri tree of New Zealand.

A lofty coniferous tree of New Zealand Agathis, or Dammara, australis), furnishing valuable timber and yielding one kind of dammar resin. [Written also kaudi, cowdie, and cowrie.]

a New Zealand tree, the Cypress cedar (Libocedrus Doniana), having a valuable, fine-grained, reddish wood.