Tas. 7941, 
MELALEUCA vuncrnata. 
Native of Temperate Australia. 
Nat. Ord. Myrrace#.—Tribe LeprosrperME2. 
Genus Metateuca, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 705.) 
Metatevca (Capitate) uncinata; frutex erectus ramis gracilibus, ramulis 
junioribus sericeo-pubescentibus, foliis sparsis 1-4-poll. iongis sessilibus 
fere filiformibus teretiusculis pallide viridibus apicibus subulatis recurvis 
rarius obtusis brunneis, floribus minutis in capitula parva axillaria sessilia 
globosa densissime congestis, bracteis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis } poll. 
longis caducis, bracteolis late oblongis, calycis hemispherici tubo vix 
zz poll. longo sinuato-5-dentato, petalis orbicularibus parvis staminibus 
crescentibus disjunctis et provectis, staminum phalangis ad } poll. longis, 
filamentis 5-7, ovario hirsuto superiore, stylo gracili flexuoso basi in- © 
crassato, capitulis fructiferis ad } poll. diam. globosis, capsulis compactis 
angulatis truncatis. r 
M. uncinata, R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, vol. iv. p. 414. DC. Prodr. vol. iii. 
p- 218. Schau. in Lehm. Pl. Preiss. vol. i. p. 138. Benth, Fl, Austral, 
vol. iii. p. 150. Bail. Queensland FV. p. 602. 
M. hamata, Field. & Gard. Sert. Pl. t. 74. 
M. Drummondii, Schaw. l. c. 138. 
M. semiteres, Schau. l. c. p. 143. 
Of the large Australian genus Melaleuca, numbering 
ninety-seven species in Bentham’s ‘‘ Flora Australiensis ” 
(since increased to upwards of a hundred), M. wneinata is 
one of the only three which inhabit both Hastern and 
Western Australia. It has indeed a wider distribution 
within Australia than any of its congeners, namely, New 
South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western 
Australia, advancing northward in the latter colony to the 
Murchison River, and in New South Wales to the Lachlan 
River, but apparently does not cross the Blue Mountains 
to the eastward. It has also been collected in Queensland 
by Mueller, according to Bailey’s ‘ Queensland Flora,” and 
in King’s Island, Bass Strait, but notin Tasmania. It seems 
natural to attribute this most remarkably wide dispersion 
for an Australian shrub to the hooked tips of the leaves. | 
The genus is all but confined to Australia, and nearly two- 
thirds of the species are restricted to Western Australia. 
One of the few tropical species, M. Leucadendron, Linn., 
Feprvary Ist, 1904. 
