296 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



An East Indian genus containing a few species of trees which abound in 

 an aromatic volatile oil; they principally grow in Amboyna, Java, and Borneo, 

 and are used for various purposes. Crawford [Hist. Ind. Archijiel.) says 

 that the bark of one furnishes the material with which the native vessels are 

 caulked, and the wood is employed for a variety of purposes. 



M. cajuputi, Maton. — Leaves alternate, elliptical, lanceolate, somewhat acute, slightly 

 falcate, 3 — 5-nerved. Flowers spiked, rather distant. Rachis, calyx and young branches 

 tomentose. 



Maton, Lo?id. Pharm. 1800; Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. iii. 394; Stephenson 

 and Churchill, ii. 84; Lindley, Fl. Med. 73; Colebrooke, Trans. Med. Bot. 

 Soc. i. 27 ; Jour. Phil. Coll. Pharm. i. 193 ; M. minor, Smith, Rees* Cy- 

 clop.; De Candolle, Prod. iii. 212 ; M. leucadendron, Lamarck, Illus. t. 441, 

 %. 4. 



Common Names. — Cajeput-tree ; Lesser Cajeput. 



Foreign Names. — Cajeput, Fr.; Melaleuca orientale, It.; Kaya-puti, 

 Malay. 



Description.- 



-Trunk erect, but crooked, covered with a very light or ash-coloured, soft, 



thick, smooth, spongy 

 Fig. 146. bark, the outer lamina 



of which peels off from 

 time to time, like the But- 

 tonwood or Birch. The 

 branches bear scattered, 

 slender twigs often droop- 

 ing, they are round and 

 smooth, the young shoots 

 sericeous. The leaves are 

 alternate, on short petioles 

 not unlike those of the 

 willow, lanceolate, and 

 whilst young, sericeous ; 

 when full grown, smooth, 

 deep-green, three to five- 

 nerved, and sometimes a 

 little falcate. When bruis- 

 ed, they have an aromatic 

 odour ; but the cells con- 

 taining the oil are barely 

 visible. The spikes are 

 terminal, and from the extreme axils, downy. The flowers are small, white, sessile, and 

 inodorous, accompanied by solitary, lanceolate, sericeous bracts. The calyx is urceolate, 

 sericeous, and divided at the margin into five deciduous segments. The petals are five, 

 rounded with short claws and longer than the calyx. The stamens are numerous, united 

 in five bundles at base, much longer than the petals and with them inserted on the calyx ; 

 anthers ovate-cordate, with a yellow gland at their apex. The ovary is ovate, crowned 

 with a slender style longer than the stamens, and having an obscurely three-lobed stigma. 

 The capsule is three-valved, covered by the thick permanent tube of the calyx, many- 

 seeded. 



This tree is a native of the Moluccas, and was first described by Rum- 

 phius (Amboina, ii. 76) as Arbor alba minor, afterwards by Sir J. E. Smith 

 (Rees' > Cyclo]ied.) as M. minor, and some years subsequently by Dr. Rox- 

 burgh (Cat. 59) as M. cajuputi. It is the species furnishing most of the 

 cajeput oil of commerce, which at one time was supposed to be exclusively 

 derived from the M. kucadendron, but specimens of the tree, affording this 

 product, having been obtained in the Moluccas by Mr. C. Smith and sent to 

 England, they were found to belong to the M. minor, and young trees trans- 

 mitted by the same collector to the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, all proved to 



M. cajuputi. 

 1. 2. Ovary. 3. Calyx and stamens. 



