70 xxviu. myrtace.e. \Leptospermum. 
Yar. 8. prostration, 1. c. Prostrate, branches ascending. Leaves ovate or oibicular, re- 
curved. 
Abundant throughout the islands, Banks and Solander, etc. Wood hard. Leaves used 
as tea in Tasmania and Australia, where the plant is equally abundant and variable. 
2. L. ericoid.es, A. Rich.; — FI. N. Z. i. 70. A large, erect shrub or 
tree, 10-40 ft. high, similar to the L. scoparium, but with more slender, gla- 
brous branches ; narrower, less coriaceous, acute, not pungent leaves, which 
are fascicled and erect or recurved ; pedicelled, smaller flowers, and the smaller 
capsule immersed in the calyx-tube. 
Abundant throughout the islands. Banks and Solander, etc. 
2. METROSIDEROS, Br. 
Erect or subscandent trees or large shrubs, often embracing the trunks of 
forest trees and strangling them. Leaves opposite, sometimes distichous, 
coriaceous. Flowers in terminal or axillary racemes or cymes, white pink 
or scarlet. — Calyx-tube globose oblong or turbinate, sometimes produced into 
a tubular or campanulate limb, lobes 5, concave, imbricate. Petals 5. Sta- 
mens very numerous; filaments filiform. Ovary 3-celled ; style slender; 
ovules very numerous, linear, radiating outwards from tumid axile placentas. 
Capsule coriaceous, sunk deeply in the calyx, or its tip free, 3-celled, 3- 
valved, bursting usually loculicidally, rarely irregularly. Seeds very numerous, 
densely packed, linear ; testa membranous. 
A comparatively small genus, consisting of several Pacific Island species, 10 New Zealand, 
an Indian, and a South African one. Its total absence ill Australia is a most remarkable fact. 
Capsule coriaceous or woody, wholly enclosed in the calyx-tube, which is produced beyond 
it, not dehiscent to the base ; bursting irregularly, or by 3 valves within the calyx. 
Scaudent. Leaves obtuse. Calyx glabrous 1. M.florida. 
Erect. Leaves acuminate. Calyx silky 2 . M. lucida. 
Capsule rather membranous, wholly enclosed in the calyx-tube, which is produced far 
beyond it, dehiscent to the base. 
Leaves decussate, very acuminate. Petals white 3. II/. albiflora. 
Leaves decussate, f-1 i in., oblong, obtuse. Petals scarlet ... 4. M. diffusa. 
Leaves distichous, J-f in., oblong-ovate, subacute. Branches glabrescent 5. M. hypericifolia. 
Leaves distichous, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Branches tomentose 6. M. Colensoi. 
Capsule girt below the middle by the calyx-tube, the upper half exposed, 3-valved. 
Erect. Leaves 1-1£ in., decussate, glabrous, obtuse 7 . M. robusta. 
Erect. Leaves 1 -3 in., decussate, downy below 8. M. tomentosa. 
Erect. Leaves f-1? in., decussate, obovate, downy below . ... 9. M. po/ymorpha. 
Scandent. 1, eaves j-i in., distichous, glabrous, 3-nerved .... 10. M. scandens. 
1. M.florida, 8m.; — FI. N. Z. i. 67. t. 15. A lofty climber, often 
clothing the tall forest-trees. Trunk very stout ; branches and brauchlets 
terete, glabrous or puberulous. Leaves 1-3 in., on short petioles, elliptic-ob- 
long, obtuse, coriaceous, glabrous ; midrib stout ; nerves numerous, slender, 
parallel, nearly horizontal. Flowers with the stamens 1 in. long, collected 
into terminal, branching, few- or many-flowered cymes; peduncles and pedicels 
short and thick. Calyx obcouic or turbinate, costate, glabrous, produced be- 
yond the ovary into an obcouic cup. Petals orbicular, pale pink. Stamens 
scarlet, numerous, and style stout. Ovary wholly adnate with the base of the 
