AUSTRALIAN MELALEUCAS AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS. 193 



ON THE AUSTRALIAN MELALEUCAS AND THEIR 



ESSENTIAL OILS, Part V. 



By R. T. Baker, f.l.s., and H. G. Smith, f.c.s. 



[With Plate VIII.] 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, November 5, 1913.] 



Summary: — 



1. Introduction. 



2. Historical. 



3. Systematic Botany. 



4. Remarks on synonymised species. 



5. Range of species. 



6. Chemistry of Essential Oils. 



a. "Cajuput" from M. minor, Linn. 



b. M. Maidens R.T.B. 



c. M. Smithii, R.T.B. 



I. Introduction. 

 Perhaps a more correct title to this paper would be 

 "Melaleuca leucadendron, Linn., its alleged synonyms and 

 their Essential Oils," for that is the ground it covers, but 

 it was thought better not to break the continuity of this 

 series of Melaleuca research in spite of a strong induce- 

 ment to do so. 



The literature published on this particular species shows 

 that much confusion has existed in the minds of system- 

 atists, as to what species showing affinity to Linnaeus' 

 should be synonymised with, or differentiated from it, and 

 this is specially the case in such botanical works as 

 Bentham's Flora Austral iensis, and Hooker's Flora of 

 British India. 



To elucidate this difficulty gave us much trouble and 

 absorbed much time. However, we think that having 



M— November 5, 1913. 



