3G6 R. T. BAKER AND HENRY G. SMITH. 



Remarks— As Bentham's description, loc. cit., may now 

 be regarded as a composite one, and Smith's a little too 

 brief perhaps to mark clearly the tree indicated, a descrip- 

 tion is added (infra) in order to definitely place the species, 

 and to show upon what material the histological and 

 chemical work is based. Smith after his short description 

 in Latin Zoc. cit., states inter alia : — " It is in some respects 

 like M. nodosa." This evidently refers to the infioresence, 

 which in some instances is rather in a close cluster than 

 a spike. 



Mr. 0. F. Laseron in his field notes states that at Gosford 

 it is a small very crooked tree rather straggling in growth, 

 growing in flat localities among other "tea trees." Diameter 

 very rarely above 5 or 6", timber reddish. 



Description of Plant.— A shrub attaining 30 feet in 

 height with a thick papery bark. Leaves ovate, blunt or 

 obtuse, slightly concave, trinerved, shortly petiolate, about 

 3 lines long and 1J lines wide. Flowers in short terminal 

 spikes or clusters. Oalyx pubescent. Fruit sessile, cup 

 or urn shaped, constricted below the rim, which is some- 

 times contracted, valves not exserted. 



Leaf Histology.— The leaf being slightly concave, a cross 

 section is boomerang in shape. The structure is uniform, 

 the two parenchymas being in equal proportion. The 

 palisade layers are of equal thickness on both sides with 

 rather more delicate cell walls than generally obtains in 

 the Melaleucas examined by us. The spongy parenchyma 

 cells are circular in cross section, through the middle of 

 which run the vascular bundles, three in this case being 

 most prominent, these give the trinerved feature men- 

 tioned by Smith when first describing the species. 



The main bundle is normally orientated, the phloem being 

 towards the under side. A circle of sclerenchymatous fibres 

 more numerous on the outer sides surrounds it (and similar 



