138 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Myrtacea. 
Hab. Hobartou, Circular Head, Currie's River, east of Georgetown, A. Cunningham> Gunn. — (PI. 
Oct.) (*.*.) 
I have great doubts as to the distinctness of this species, which I have at one time been inclined to refer to 
E. amygdalina, and at others to E. radiata, but from both of which it differs in the very small, sessile fruit, and 
very shining, coriaceous leaves. Gunn says, that at Currie's l!i\er ir t<nnis a bush only 5 feet high, and that, 
at Circular Head it grows 10-20 feet high, and appears more of a shrub than a tree. It approaches E. sldlnhita, 
Sieber, in many points, but wants the three parallel nerves of that plant, and the large operculum. — Plate XXIX. 
Fig. 1 and 2, ripe fruit, nat. size; 3, calyx, magnified. 
Gen. VI. LEPTOSPERMUM, Font. 
Mores sparsi, axillares. Calycis tubus campanulatus, cam ovario connatus, limbus superus v. ^-superus, 
ssepissime deciduus, lobis 5, valvatis. Petala 5, orbiculata. Stamina 20-60 j filamenta brevia, libera. Ova- 
rium 4-5-loculare, loculis multiovulatis. Capsula apice loculicide dehiscens. — Arbores v. frutices ; foliis 
alternis, exstipulatis ; floribus alhis. 
One of the most difficult genera in the Order, on account of the excessive variability of its species, whether 
in Australia, where thirty are known, or in New Zealand, where only two have been detected. The genus is almost 
confined to these two countries, a few species only having been found in Java, Borneo, and the Molucca Islands, 
accompanying various other types of Australian vegetation. Schauer's divisions of the genus into those with 
caducous and persistent calyx-lobes, are not available for the Tasmanian species, all of which have lobes which fall 
away at very variable periods, but always before the fruit ripens. Of the Tasmanian species, L. scoparinm is very 
distinct; L. myrtifolium and L. rupestre are probably varieties of one, and many states of them are hardly distin- 
guishable, when dry, from L. nitidnu ; L. nifid/on, pubewns, and Jl<n:<w,is, all pass into one another, and are pro- 
bably states of one variable species.— Trees or shrubs, with alternate, ex stipulate leaves, and white flowers, of the 
same structure as those of Callistemon, but axillary, scattered, and the stamens have short filaments, and the 
calyx-lobes are valvate. (Name from Xeirros, slender, and airepaa, a seed.) 
i (Smith, Linn. Trans, iii. 262) j erectum, ramulis angulatis foliisque 
novellis sericeis, foliis brevissime petiolatis patulis recurvisve rigidis late ovatis ellipticis lanceolatisve acu- 
minatis pungentibus concavis enerviis, floribus sessilibus axillanbus v. ramulis brevissimis terminalibus, 
calyce brevi turbinate glabro lobis deciduis rotundatis, capsula lignosa calyce semi-immersa apice 5-valvi. 
— DC. Prodr. iii. 227; Schauer in Linncea, xv. 424; Fl. N. Zeal. i. 69. L. grandiflorum, Hook. Bot. 
Mag. t. 3419. Philadelphus scoparius, Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 1. ii. 156. Melaleuca scoparia, Font. Prodr. 
240. 
Var. a. scoparia; erecta, foliis lanceolatis. {Gunn, 486, 814.) 
Var. £. linifolia (DC. 1. c.) ; erecta, foliis anguste lineari-lanceolatis.-^L. squarrosum, Oartn. Fruct. 
i. 174; Sieb. PL Exsicc. p. 811. M. scoparia diosmatifolia, Wendl. I.e./. 1. {Gunn, 486, 811.) 
Var. 7. myrti/olia (DC. 1. c.) ; erecta, foliis elliptico-ovatis rotandatisve. — Wendl. I. c. Philadelphus 
iloribundus, Rcem. et Ust. Mag. 7. i. 2. {Gunn, 486, 1250.) 
Hab. Very abundant throughout the Colony. Var. 7. Flinders' Island and Recherche Bay, Gunn.— 
(FL Oct.-March.) {v. v.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia, New Zealand. (Cultivated in England.) 
An exceedingly variable plant, but yet one of the best marked in the genus, and never passing into any of the 
following. It is even more abundant in New Zealand than in Australia or Tasmania, and there alpine states of it 
are quite prostrate.— A rigid shrub, 1-12 feet high, covered with white flowers, and often squarrose, harsh, pun- 
