GOO 
LI. MYRTACE/E. 
[Melaleuca. 
the adult foliage glabrous and often glaucous. Leaves mostly opposite, linear or 
linear-lanceolate, concave or keeled, rigid, acute, f to Hin. long. Flowers white 
fragrant in distinct pairs, in rather dense spikes of 1 to lAin., at first terminal 
or in the upper axils, the axis soon growing out into a leafy branch, the rhachis 
and calyxes more or less pubescent. Calyx-tube ovoid-globular, 1 to 1^ line 
long ; lobes shorter, broad, obtuse, with searious or petal-like margins. Petals 
about twice as long as the calyx-lobes. Staminal bundles often Ain. long or 
more, the claws long and narrow, sometimes filiform, each with numerous 
pinnately-arranged filaments ; anthers very small. Ovules very numerous in 
each cell, covering a peltate placenta ; style rather thick, with a broadly capitate 
stigma. Fruiting-calyx not much enlarged. Seeds minute, cuneate ; cotyledons 
not folded and not much longer than the radicle. — DC. Prod. iii. 214 ; Metrosi- 
deros hyssopifolia, Cav. Ic. iv. 20, t. 336. 
Hab.: Moreton Bay, C. Stuart ; Rockhampton, P. O’Shanesy (F. v. M.) 
Wood of a dark-red colour, very durable ; useful for building-stumps and piles for wharves. — 
Bailey's Cat. Ql. T Voods No. 169. 
Yield of oil from dry foliage, 28Joz. per cwt. — J. F. Bailey. 
Var. trichostachya. Leaves usually smaller. Flowers smaller in looser spikes. Bracts very 
narrow. Stamens more crowded on a shorter claw. Fruiting-calyx rather more open. — .1/. 
trichostachya, Lindl. in Mitch. Trop. Austin 277; Belyando River, Mitchell; Burdekin and 
Gilbert Rivers and along the N.E. coast. F. v. Mueller : Cooper’s Creek. Howitt’s Expedition . — 
Ben th. 
7. leucadendron (white tree), Linn. Mont. 105; Benth. hi. Amtr. iii. 
142. “ Mor-ngi,” Palmer River, Roth ; “ Ivyenbooree,” Mackay, Nugent . 
“ Bichuma,” Forest Hill, Macartney ; “ Atchoourgo,” Mitchell River, Palmer : 
“ Oodgeroo,” Stradbroke Island, Watkins. A tree often attaining a con- 
siderable size, with a thick bark peeling off in thin layers, the branches 
slender and often pendulous, but in some situations remaining a small tree or 
shrub with rigid erect branches. Leaves alternate, often vertical, elliptical 
or lanceolate, straight, oblique or falcate, acuminate, acute or obtuse, when broad 
very rigid and 2 to 4in. long, when narrow sometimes 6 to 8in. long, narrowed 
into a petiole, 3 to 7-nerved with anastomosing veins. Flower-spikes elongated, 
more or less interrupted, solitary or 2 or 3 together, from under 2 to above 6in. 
long, at first terminal but the axis growing out after flowering into a leafy branch, 
the rhachis and calyxes glabrous pubescent tomentose or woolly. Calyx-tube 
ovoid, usually about 1A line long ; lobes short, orbicular, often searious on the 
margin. Petals 1 to 1A line diameter. Staminal bundles under Ain. long, the 
claws sometimes exceedingly short, sometimes exceeding the petals, each with 
5 to 8 filaments at the end. Ovules numerous, ascending on an oblong placenta. 
Fruiting-calyx usually about 2 lines diameter, varying from globular to almost 
hemispherical. Seeds obovoid or cuneate ; cotyledons obovate, thick, much 
longer than the radicle. — F. v. M. Fragm. iv. 55 ; M. leucadendron, Linn.; M. 
minor, Sm.; and M. riridiflnra, Giertn.; DC. Prod. iii. 212, and the same names 
with the addition of M. saligna, Blume, Mus. Bot. i. 66, with the several 
synonyms quoted by DC. and Blume; Metrosideros albida, Sieb. PI. Exs., referred 
in Spreng. Syst. Cur. Post. 194 to M . coriarea (attributed by mistake to Labill. 
instead of Salisb. Prod. 352). 
Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, P,. Brown ; common from the Victoria River to the 
Gulf of Carpentaria, F. v. Mueller and others ; on the coast at various points from the Burdekin 
to Moreton Bay, Banks and Solander, B. Brown, A. Cunningham, F. v. Mueller, and others; also 
in the interior, Mitchell. 
The young leaves are bruised in water, and drunk for headaches and colds and general 
sickness; the bark is used for bedding to lay on the ground and to form camps with, Mitchell 
River. — Palmer. 
In Queensland the species is represented by the following well-marked varieties : — 
Var. lancifolia, Bail. Syn. 170. Paper-barked Tea-tree. Often a large tree, the bark in thin 
white layers, the leaves stiff, about 3 inches long, the end pointed ; spikes of greenish-yellow 
