Melaleuca. 
LT. MYRTACEiE. 
601 
flowers, often two together. Common in the swamps of the south. — Yield of oil from dry- 
foliage, 30oz. per cwt., J. F. Bailey. — Wood of a pinkish-grey colour, close-grained and firm ; 
very useful for underground work. Bailey's Cat. Ql. J Foods No. 170. 
Var. saligna, Bail. Syn. 170. Drooping Paper-barked Tea-tree. A large tree, the bark in 
white papery layers, the branches long, slender, and drooping like the Weeping Willow. Leaves 
6 or more inches long, and about half an inch wide; the flowers very distant on the spike, and 
the stamens sometimes stained with red. Swamps and river-sides in tropical localities. — 
Wood of a light-grey colour; very durable, especially in underground work. Bailey's Cat. Ql. 
I Coach No. 171. 
Var. Cunninghamii, Bail. Syn. 171. A small tree, the bark papery; leaves very stiff, large 
and broad. Flowers large, yellowish, the spikes about 5in. long. Swamps of tropical localities. 
— Wood hard, of a dark colour, very durable. Bailey's Cat. Ql. Woods No. 172. 
A form of the latter differs in its flowers being of a dark-red colour. Thursday and other 
islands of Torres Straits. — Wood similar. Bailey's Cat. Ql. Woods No. 172a. 
8. IYI. lasiandra (velvety flowers), F. r. M. Frar/m. iii. 115; Benth. FI. 
Austr. iii. 143. A small tree, 40 to 45ft. high, with a stem diameter of 14 or 
15in.; bark grey, fibrous, lamellar but hard and closely compact, the young 
foliage silvery-silky, becoming glabrous and glaucous with age. Leaves alternate, 
often vertical, from elliptical-lanceolate to almost linear, acute or acuminate, 
narrowed at the base, rigid, thick, 1 to 2in. long, attaining 3 or din. in length 
and a breadth of 4 lines, obscurely 3 or 5-nerved, nerves rather prominent. 
Flowers small, more or less distant, forming irregularly interrupted slender spikes 
24in. long, at first terminal, but the axis soon growing out into a leafy shoot, 
the rhachis and calyxes softly pubescent or villous. Calyx-tube ovoid, about 1 
line long ; lobes ovate, about half as long as the tube. Petals not much longer 
than the calvx-lobes, often pubescent. Staminal bundles about 3 lines long, the 
claws short, more or less pubescent outside, irregularly divided, each into 12 to 
20 filaments, of which some are often free almost to the base ; anthers small. 
Ovules exceedingly numerous, covering a peltate placenta; style pubescent at the 
base ; stigma small. Fruiting-calyx not much enlarged, crowned by the persistent 
lobes. Seeds not winged. — Benth. l.c. 
Hab.: Musgrave, Cape York Peninsula, Geo. . Jacobsen , who speaks of it as “a real good, useful 
timber, durable either in or out of the ground.” 
I think there can be no doubt as to this being identical with the tree found by Baron Mueller 
on the Upper Victoria and Fitzmaurice Rivers in the Northern Territory of South Australia. — 
Bat. Bull. iv. 10. 
9. IVT . genistifolia (Genista-leaved), Shi. in Tram. Linn. Soc. iii. 277, and 
Exot. But. t. 55 ; Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 113. A tall shrub or tree, attaining 30 to 
40ft. or even more. Bark hard, blackish, glabrous or more or less pubescent or 
hirsute. leaves scattered, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, rigid, acute and often 
pungent-pointed, flat, usually about |4n., but in some specimens longer, in others 
much shorter, finely striate, with 7 or more nerves, conspicuous on the floral 
leaves, almost evanescent on others. Flowers in loose oblong or cylindrical 
spikes, sometimes terminal, but the axis often growing out before the flowers 
expand, often mucn interrupted, and many of the bracts developed into leaves 
like the stem ones or shorter and broader, rarely all small, scale-like and deciduous, 
the rhachis and calyxes glabrous pubescent or hirsute. Calyx-tube ovoid, above 1 
line long ; lobes triangular, sometimes acute, almost as in M. sti/phelioides, some- 
times more obtuse as in M. Preissiana. Petals very deciduous. Htaminal bundles 
about 3 lines long, the claws usually shorter but sometimes longer than the petals, 
each with numerous filaments. Ovules numerous, closely packed on a small bifid 
placenta. Fruiting-calyx not much enlarged, nearly globular, crowned by the 
persistent lobes. — DC. Prod. iii. 212 ; M. lanceolate, Otto, from the diagnoses in 
DC. Prod. iii. 212 ; M. hracteata, F. v. M. Fragm. i. 15 ; Metrosideras decora , 
Salisb. Prod. 352. 
Hab.: Brisbane River, Fraser, A. Cunningham, and others (flowering in April) ; Fine River 
and Mount Elliott, Fitzalan ; Marlborough, Bowman. 
Wood of a grey colour, hard, close-grained and tough .^Bailey's Cat. Ql. Woods No. 172b, 
