Metrosideros.'] 
XXVIII. MVRTACEJE. 
73 
densely clothed with white tomentura ; peduncles and pedicels very stout. 
Calyx-tube obconic ; lobes short, triangular-ovate. Petals orbicular, scarlet, 
clawed, toinentose on the back. Stamens and style very long and stout. 
Ovary adnate below the middle with the base of the calyx-tube. Capsule 
in. long, woody, girt round the middle by the calyx-tube, bursting loculici- 
dally. — A. Rich. Flor. t. 37. 
Northern Bland : common on the rocky shores, Banks and Solander, etc. 
9. M. polymorpha, Forst. A small, branching tree, excessively variable 
in foliage and in being woolly downy or glabrous ; the variety from Kermadec 
Island has downy branches, coriaceous, petioled, decussate leaves, f-li in. 
long, obovate, rounded at the tip ; veins finely reticulated ; margins recurved. 
Flowers in terminal, many-flowered cymes ; peduncles and calyx white, woolly. 
Calyx i in. long, hemispherical ; lobes triangular, persistent, often tipped at 
the back with a black gland. Petals white or scarlet. Stamens -g— f in. 
long. Ovary woolly at the top. Capsule 3-lobed, 3-valved, sessile in the 
broad calyx-tube, which is attached to its middle. 
Kermadec Islands, where it is the prevailing tree, and reaches 60 ft. high, M‘ Gillivray . 
One of the most variable trees in the world, abundant throughout all the Pacific islands and 
New Caledonia, but not found in Australia. 
10. M. scandens, Banks and Sol. ; — FI. N. Z. i. 69. A large climb- 
ing shrub or small tree, with spreading, terete, tomentose branches. Leaves 
distichous, -§■ — in., sessile, broadly ovate oblong or orbicular, obtuse, glabrous, 
the younger pubescent, very coriaceous, below covered with large glandular 
dots, 3-nerved ; margins recurved. Flowers with the stamens in. long, in 
short, few-flowered, subglobose, terminal, rarely lateral, pubescent cymes ; pe- 
duncles and pedicels rather slender. Calyx-tube very broadly obconic ; lobes 
short, obtuse, deciduous. Petals orbicular, whitish. Stamens and style rather 
slender. Ovary adnate below its middle with the base of the calyx-tube. 
Capsule small, globose, \ in. diam., girt at the middle by the calyx-tube, 
the free portion looulicidally 3-valved. — M. perjorata , A. Rich. ; M. buxifolia , 
A. Cunn. ; Melaleuca perforata, Forst. Prod. ; Leptospermum perforutum, 
Forst. Gen. 
Common in forests of the Northern and Middle Islands, Banks and Solander, etc. 
Lord Auckland’s group, Bolton. Wood hard and heavy. 
3. MYRTUS, Linn. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves evergreen, opposite, often coriaceous, pellucid- 
dotted. Flowers axillary, solitary or in few-flowered cymes. — Calyx-tube 
globose; limb 4- or 5-lobed, imbricate. Petals 4 or 5. Stamens very nume- 
rous, longer than the petals. Berry globose, crowned with the persistent 
calyx-lobes, 2- or 3-celled ; cells many- or few-seeded. Seeds reniform or an- 
gular ; testa bony ; embryo terete curved, cotyledons small. 
A genus scattered over the temperate and warmer countries of the glohe, of which the 
common Myrtle is the only European example, hut of which many species inhabit the south 
temperate zone, one extending to Cape Horn, and two to Akaroa. The genus is absent in Tas- 
mania. 
1. eaves 1-2 in., tumid between the veins 1. M. bullata. 
Leaves §-l in., flat . . 2. M. Ratphii. 
