

108 MELALEUCA MINOR 



3-celled, ovules numerous, in several rows ascending from large 

 axile placentas, stigma faintly 3-lobed. Fruit becoming woody 

 and very hard, sessile on the sides of the branches and remaining 

 several years, small, rounded, truncate, enclosed in the thickened 

 calyx-tube, and crowned by its free portion, dehiscing on the 

 summit loculicidally into three valves, 3-celled. Seeds cuneate, 

 flattened (many abortive), testa thin, embryo with large thick 

 cotyledons, no endosperm. 



Habitat. The tree yielding Cajuput oil grows in several of the 

 East Indian Islands, notably in Celebes, Bouro, and Amboyna, and 

 perhaps also in the Phillippines, Cochin China, and New Cale- 

 donia. The leaves vary somewhat in breadth and have a strong 

 aromatic fragrance. Mr. Bentham considers it a form of M. 

 Leucadendron, in which he also includes the other East Indian 

 described species, and remarks that none of the characters sup- 

 posed to separate them are sufficiently constant or so combined 

 as to allow of their definition. As, however, it appears that it 

 is this form only from which the oil is obtained, we have main- 

 tained the specific name, without intending thereby to express any 

 opinion as to its distinctness from the common Australian " Tea- 

 tree/' M. Leucadendron, L. The plant was introduced into the 

 Eoyal Gardens at Kew in 1775 and is still grown there, where, 

 however, it does not flower. 



Colebrooke, in Trans. Med. Bot. Soc. Loud., i, p. 27 ; Benth., Fl. 

 Austral., iii, p. 142; Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 73. 



Official Part and Name. OLEUM CAJUPUTI ; the oil distilled 

 from the leaves (B. P.). The oil distilled from the leaves (I. P.). 

 OLEUM CAJUPUTI ; the volatile oil obtained from the leaves of 

 Melaleuca Cajuputi, Roxburgh, (U. S. P.). 



Extraction and Commerce. Rumphius states that the leaves are 

 gathered on a warm day and placed in a sack, where they become 

 hot and damp. They are then macerated in water and left to 

 ferment for a night, and afterwards submitted to distillation. 

 Two sackfuls of the leaves yield only about three fluid drachms 

 of the oil. Lesson, who visited Bouro, one of the Molucca Islands, 



