292 THE FLORA OF THE NOETHEEN TEREITOEY. 



Smith also gives the, following particulars : — ' The tree is a native of some parts 

 of East Indies, and from it is distilled the green aromatic oil called Cajeput, 

 from cajuputi, a white tree, the Malay name of the plant, hence Linnaeus gave 

 the name Leucadendron to this species." In Rees' Cyclop., Smith again de- 

 scribes the species as follows : — " Leaves alternate, lanceolate, pointed, ob- 

 liquely falcate, five-ribbed. Foot-stalks, young branches, and germen smooth. 

 Native of some parts of the East Indies, especially the Molocca Islands, Ceram 

 and Amboyna, growing in hilly places, flowering from January to March, and 

 ripening fruit from August to November, but according to Rumphius, it is 

 rarely propagated from seed. This is described by that accurate writer, as a 

 large tree, as thick as a man's body, or much thicker, with many irregular 

 widely spreading branches, but not of a lofty growth. Leaves scattered, on 

 short foot-stalks, lanceolate, entire, smooth, tapering at each end, but most at 

 the extremity, curved laterally into a sickle-shape from five to eight inches long, 

 scarcely an inch broad in the widest part, furnished with five principal ribs, 

 connected by intermediate inter branching veins. Stipules none. Flowers 

 white, in long, loose somewhat whorled spikes, whose smooth common stalk 

 terminates in a leaf-bud, and becomes a branch. The bundle of stamens are 

 f of an inch long, and each divided nearly to the base. Germen (ovary) scarcely 

 so large as a hemp-seed, globose, smooth, quite sessile, the capsules remaining 

 long firmly fixed to the branch, surmounted by leaves, after the seeds have 

 fallen out, as is common to the whole genus. 



Rumphius speaks much of the resinous and aromatic properties of this tree, 

 its whitish or grey aspect, and its agreeable shade. The wood is hard and 

 heavy, but easily splits and soon decays, being neither beautifiil nor useful. 

 The outer bark is of a spongy nature, and much used for caulking vessels, as it 

 swells in the water ; but is nevertheless hable to shrink again, and give way. 

 It is called baru, a name given to all substances used for that purpose. An oil 

 is obtained by firing the .tree, which soon becomes thick, and is used for candles. 

 Rumphius says nothing of any fine essential oil being procured by distillation 

 from this tree, see the next species (M. minor)." Then we have some remarks 

 by Bentham in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), Vol. x., p. 139 (1867), who states that 

 ' ' One species, the old M. Leucadendron, Linn. , the only one which from Australia 

 spreads itself over the Indian Archipelago and the Malayan Peninsula, is, with 

 this very wide grographical range, also singularly polymorphous. 



It has been divided into more than a dozen species, and most botanists 

 retain two, three, or four as distinct, the extreme forms being widely dissimilar; 

 but the characters, derived chiefly from the shape and size of the leaves, from 

 the dense or interrupted spikes, from the size and colour of the flowers, and from 

 the indumentum, are so variously combined in different specimens, the forms 

 at other times pass so gradually one into the other, or differ so much at difl^erent 

 ages, or even on different branches of the same tree, that I have completely 

 failed in the endeavour to sort the specimens into distinct races. 



The seeds, in the few species where they have been examined in the ripe 

 state, differ considerably in shape, in the presence or absence of wings, and in 

 the shape of the cotyledons of their embryo ; but these differences, as far as 

 known, do not appear to be available for the distinction of sectional groups." 



Bentham (Fl. iii., p. 142), pointed out the wide range of variation of this 

 species. Owing to the immense variation, as shewn by the specimens under 

 the name M . Leucadendron in the National Herbarium, Sydney, it was suggested 

 by Mr. Maiden (Forest Flora, Vol. i., p. 90, 1903), that " it would be desirable 

 for a monographer to re-examine all the forms of this variable species." Mr. 

 R. T. Baker (Proc. Limi. Soc, N.S.W., Vol. xxxviii., p. 597 (1913), has also 



