is found in the Malayan Archipelago, and as far North- 
west as Southern Burma. It is also cultivated in India, 
and yields the Cajuput oil of commerce. 
The plant figured was raised from seed taken from 
herbarium specimens in 1896, collected by the Elder 
Exploration Expedition (1891-2) from South Australia 
through the Victoria Desert into Western Australia. It 
flowered in the Temperate House in April, 1902. There 
are many ornamental species of Melaleuca, though few are 
so brilliant as those of the allied genera Callistemon and 
Calothamnus. Only five have previously been figured in 
the Magazine, the last being M. Wilsoni (t. 6131). The 
history of the cultivation of the genus at Kew is singular. 
In 1789 there was only one species in the garden (Aiton, 
Hortus Kewensis), By 1812 (Hortus Kewensis, ed. 2) the 
number had increased to twenty-four. In 1850, as Mr. 
Watson informs me, there were only five species, and now 
there are thirty. 
M. uncinata was first raised at Kew in 1803, from seed 
sent home by Peter Good, who accompanied Robert Brown 
on Flinders’s voyage, and died at Sydney, N.S. Wales, in 
1803. It is noteworthy in the genus for having a free or 
superior ovary. 
Descr.—A dwarf, erect shrub, with slender branches, 
silky-pubescent when young. Jeaves scattered, one to 
four inches long, sessile, terete, very slender, pale green, 
_ tips hard, sharp, recurved. Flowers minute, pale yellow, 
clustered in small, axillary, sessile, dense, globose heads. 
Bracts ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, a quarter of an inch 
long, caducous. Bracteoles broadly oblong, villous. Calyx 
hemispherical; tube minute; limb of five very short, 
rounded lobes. Petals very small, nearly orbicular, cilio- 
late, carried up and thrown off by the unfolding stamens. 
Stamens in five bundles of five to seven each; filaments 
free to below the middle. Ovary hairy, free; style slender, 
era Capsules densely clustered, long, persistent.— 
Fig. 1, tip of leaf; 2, bracteole ; 3, expanding flower, the petals on the top 
of the unfolding stamens; 4, portion of flower laid open; 5, petal; 6, pistil; 
7, portion of branch and head of fruit; 8, tube of calyx :—all but fig. 7 
enlarged. a 
