NATIVE FLORA OF TROPICAL QUEENSLAND. 421 



Terminalia melanocarpa and T. platyphylla (Plate LVIII, 

 fig. 2) were seen near the Etheridge and Gilbert Rivers, 

 and are beautiful shade trees somewhat resembling an 

 English mulberry, but around the Gulf or Carpentaria they 

 are often known as Pear trees. 



One of the most beautiful and conspicuous of the large 

 trees along the banks of streams in tropical Queensland is 

 Melaleuca saligna. It occurs at elevations of at least 1600 

 feet above sea level as at Alma-den, which is on a tributary 

 of the Mitchell River about 250 miles from its mouth, and 

 will descend practically to sea level. Two of the common 

 river trees of Eastern Australia are Eucalyptus rostrata 

 (not confined to the east) and Gasuarina Cunninghamiana, 

 but both of these species are absent from many miles of the 

 lower portions of the rivers of north Queensland and their 

 place is taken by Melaleuca saligna. This tree is known 

 as Willow Tea-tree and Drooping Tea-tree from its graceful 

 pendulous habit. On the Etheridge, Gilbert, Flinders and 

 other rivers, the Willow Tea-trees reach a height of from 

 sixty to seventy feet and hang gracefully over the stream 

 sometimes meeting overhead and forming a canopy, while 

 charming vistas are produced between the avenues of 

 papery-barked stems, the water and the pendulous 

 foliage. 



Leichhardt first met with this tree on Hughs's Greek, 

 near the Isaacs River, (op. cit., p. 140), and calls it "the 

 drooping tea-tree (Melaleuca leucodendron?)." He writes: 

 44 We found it afterwards at every creek and river." On 

 the 9th June, 1845, when on the Lynd River, he wrote: — 

 u We gathered some blossoms of the drooping tea-tree, 

 which were full of honey, and when soaked, imparted a 

 very agreeable sweetness to the water," (p. 286). He 

 formed the opinion that " this tree cannot live on water 

 entirely salt" (p. 390). 



