APPENDIX II. 



290 



Bentham, I.e., collected " Behind the Government House, Sydney," it appears 

 to me that these may be quite distinct from those collected bj^ Mitchell, and may 

 probably belong to the var. viridiflora and var. albida. 



(7) M. Leucadendron, var. minor. 



M. minor, Sm., in Rees Cycl., Vol. xxiii.. No. 2 (1819) (Lesser Cajeput 

 Tree). Arbor alba minor, Rumph, Amboin, Vol. 2, p. 76, t., 17. 



The following is a description by Smith : — " Leaves scattered, elliptical 

 lanceolate, bluntish, straight, five ribbed. Young branches and germen (ovary) 

 downy. Native of Amboyna, but less frequent than the foregoing ( Leucaden- 

 dendron) with which it has been confounded by everybody but Rumphius. We 

 now venture, for the first time, to distinguish them. This is smaller in all it.s 

 parts, and rather a shrub than a tree. The young leaves are extremely silky ; 

 adult ones nearly smooth, about two (scarcely three) inches long, and one 

 broad, exactly elliptical and not obhque or falcated. Footstalk broad and very 

 short, somewhat hairy. Young branches, where the flowers are seated, densely 

 clothed with white silky prominent down, as is Ukewise the germen (ovary). 

 The calyx is but slightlj' downy. Fruit smooth, depressed and truncated. 



The late Mr. Christopher Smith, from whom we have received specimens of 

 both these plants, assured us of this being what yields the oil of Cajeput, and 

 Rumphius gives the same account (see Cajeput). The bark is woody and 

 brittle throughout, not externallj- corky like the former. The structure of their 

 parts of fructification is the same in both, especially the form of the stamens. 

 Rumphius's plates are by no means calculated to give a just idea of the foliage 

 of either, especially of the present, but his descriptions are excellent." 



It is described by DecandoUe (Prod, iii., p. 212), who gives M. cajaputi, 

 Roxb., and Myrtws saligna, Gmel, as synonymus. Don. (Hist. Gard. and Bot. 

 ii., p. 814 (1819), also gives East India Islands and Ambojrna as the habitat, 

 quoting the same sjmonyms as in DecandoUe's work. I.e., J. F. Duthie (in 

 Hooker's Flora of British India, Vol. ti., p. 465 (1879), describes two varieties of 

 J/. Leucadendron, quoting M. Leucadendron, of Ldnn. Mant., 105, as Var. 

 Leucadendron ; spikes glabrous, and M. viridiflora, of Gaertn., and several 

 synonyms as var. minor, with " spikes villous." 



In the National Herbarium, Sydney, there is a specimen labelled Mda- 

 leuca LeiLcadendron, from Singapore, iv., 1896, Schlesischer botanischer Tau- 

 schverein (No. 854) Plantae ex India extra Gangem, which agrees in every detail 

 with the original description of Smith. The leaves are not in any way sub- 

 falcate, as mentioned in DecandoUe's latin description. Some specimens 

 collected bj- the late Mr. E. Betche at Atherton, N. Queensland, in August. 

 1901, are almost identical with the Singapore specimens, in that the leaves are 

 eUiptical — lanceolate, bluntish and five-nerved as described by Smith for his 

 M. minor. Mr. Betche remarks that his specimens are from a " small tree with 

 papery bark." In addition to the specimens from Atherton, there are also 

 specimens from Rockhampton, Q. (R. Simmonds, 1903), and Maude's Creek, 

 N.T., Professor W. Baldwin Spencer, July-August, 1911, which seem t-o be 

 almost identical with the Singapore specimens, and are best placed under 

 M. Leucadendron, var. minor. 



(8) M. Leucadendron, var. viridiflora. 



M. viridiflora (Sol.) Gsertner Fruct., i., 173 (1788) t., xxxv., f.a.b. The 

 original description is as follows : — " Calyx hemispherical (a) crassus edentiulus. 

 Capsula immersa, trilocularis, tri-valvis. Stamina (6) filiformia, longissima, 

 basi connata." 



