PLATE DCXXII. 



LEPTOSPERMUM scoparium. 



Nex<o Zealand Tea. 



CLASS Xn. ORDER L 



ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNTA. Stamens from the Calyx. One Style. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Calyx 5-fidus, semisuperus. Petala quinque, 

 unguiculata, staminibus longiora. Stigma 

 capitatum. Capsula 4- seu 5-loculai-is, po- 

 lysperma. Semina angulosa. 



Cup ."j -cleft, free above the middle. Petals five, 

 clawed, and longer than the stamens. Stig- 

 ma beaded. Capsula 4- or 5-celled, many- 

 seeded. Seeds angular. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Leptospermum foliis ovatis ovato-lanceolatis- 

 que muoronatis obsolete trinerviis ; caly- 

 cibus glabris, dentibus membranaceis co- 

 loratis. 



L. scoparium. JVilld. sp. pi. 2. p. Q48. 

 Tea Plant. Cook's Second Foyage, vol. \.p. 100. tnh. 32. 



Lepto<;permi;m with ovate and ovate-lanced 

 dagger-|)ointed faintly 3-nerved leaves, and 

 smooth calyces with membranaceous co- 

 loured teeth. 



RF.FERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. Empalement, chives, and pointal. 



2. The same cut open, one tip magnified. 



3. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified. 



4. A petal. 



The Leptospermum scoparium grows naturally in New Zealand, where it was found in Cook's 

 first voyage of discovery in the year 17*39, and was first published with an engraving of the fructifica- 

 tion in 1776, hy the two Forsters, hi their Characteres Generum Plantarum, or Account of the 

 Plants they collected in that expedition. The following description of the plant, and accounts of the 

 benefits his people derived from it, are extracted from Captain Cook's Account of his Second Voyage, 

 vol. i. p. 99 to 10!. 



" The Tea plant is a small tree or shrub, with five white petals or flower-leaves, shaped like those of a 

 rose, having smaller ones of the same figure in the intermediate spaces, and twenty or more filaments 

 or threads. 'I'he tree sometimes grows to a moderate height, and is generally bare on the lower part, 

 with a number of small branches growing close together towards the top. The leaves are small and 

 pointed like those of the myrtle ; it bears a dry roundish seed -case, and grows commonly in dry places 

 near the shores. Ihe leaves, as I have 'already observed, were used by many of us as tea, which has 

 a very agreeable bitter and flavour when they are recent, but loses some of both when they are dried. 

 When (lie infusion was made strong, it proved emetic to some, in the same manner as green tea. 



" The beer certainly contributed not a liitle to the healthiness of our people. As I have already ob- 

 served, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce leaves (Dacrydium cupressinum) ; but finding 

 that this alone made the beer too astringent, we afterwards mixed it with an equal quantity of the Tea 

 plant, (a name it obtained in my former voyage from our using it as tea then, as we also did now,) which 

 partly destrojed the astrin^^ency ol" the other, and made the beer exceedingly palatable, and esteemed 

 by every one on board." 



In the younger Forster's account of the same expedition, vol. i p. 128 and 129, a similar account of 

 its utility and beauty is given, with the ad<litional information, that, in a fine soil, in thick forests, it 

 was found from 30 to 40 teet high, and above a foot in diameter j while on a hilly arid situation he 



■found it bearing flowers and seed v.'hen only 6 inches high. 



The plant was introduced to the Royal Gardens at Kew so early as 1772, and several varieties of it 



■are now in cultivation. It is increased both by seeds and cuttings, and requires to be kept in the Green- 



(house or Conservatory. 



Specimens were communicated by Mr. Donn from the botanic garden at Cambridge last May, and 



'Others in June by Mr. Milne from Fonthill. 



