in 1776 as Leptospermum collinum, from specimens the 
exact provenance of which is unknown, and was diagnosed 
by him a second time as Melaleuca aestuosa, from Tahiti 
material. Later this species was united with the 
Hawaiian Metrosideros polymorpha of Gaudichaud, now 
reported from many other Polynesian groups. Recently, 
however, Mr. J. F. Rock, Government Botanist of the 
Sandwich Islands, after a careful study of the Hawaiian 
Metrosideros, has reached the conclusion that M. poly- 
morpha includes five species, four of these being endemic 
in the group, while the fifth is the widespread MW. collina. 
But Mr. Rock finds further that in the Sandwich Islands 
M. collina itself includes eleven recognisable varieties, 
nine of which are endemic, while the remaining two, 
var. glaberrima and var. incana, are distributed. The 
form recognised as var. incana is, however, at once the 
Linnaean Melaleuca villosa and the original Leptospermum 
collinum of Forster which we now figure: This particular 
form extends from Lord Howe Island and New 
Caledonia eastward to Pitcairn Island and Tahiti and 
northward to Hawaii. For the introduction of M. collina 
to European gardens, horticulture is indebted to Major 
A. A. Dorrien-Smith, from whose garden at Tresco 
Abbey, Isles of Scilly,.came the material for our figure. 
To Tresco Major Dorrien-Smith brought his plant from 
‘Wellington, New Zealand, whither it had been introduced 
from Sunday Island in the Kermadec Group by Mr. 
R. B. Oliver. It thrives satisfactorily in the Scilly 
Islands, where it flowered in June, 1918, and may prove 
hardy in other especially favoured situations in the 
south-west of England and Ireland. 
Description.—T ree, up to 60 ft. high, or at times a shrub; branches terete, 
at first usually hairy, ultimately becoming glabrous. Leaves opposite, shortly 
stalked, leathery, obovate, wide elliptic or nearly orbicular, blunt at the apex, 
cuneate or rounded at the base, villous or glabrous, 1}-2} in. long, 3-1} in. 
wide ; veins many, parallel; petiole 1-2 in. long. Flowers terminal, showy, 
rather closely corymbose or paniculate ; bracts almost obsolete ; pedicels short, 
tomentose. Calyx campanulate, }-1 in. long, tomentose; lobes wide, oblong 
or rounded, ~, in. long. Petals obovate, 1-1 in. long, red. Stamens nunferous, 
2-8in. long. Style slender, 3 in. long. 
Tas. 8846.—Fig. 1, base of leaf; 2, calyx and pistil; 3, section of calyx and 
ovary; 4, petal; 5 and 6, anthers :—all enlarged. 
