Note 77 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Jade, which is so often referred to (though sometimes miscalled "green talc") in the works of early Pacific explorers, is a beautiful green stone of several quite distinct species. The Jade of New Zealand is either a fibrous silicate called nephrite or a green serpentine silicate. The Maoris called these green stones poenamu or poiinamu, and because Jade of both kinds was specially abundant in the South Island this was called Tarai-poenamu=the Land of Jade.