90 
No. 14. 
Melaleuca leucadendron, Linn. 
The Broad-leaved Tea-tree. 
(Natural Order MYRTACEyE.) 
Botanical description.— Genus, Melaleuca , Linn. 
Calyx-tube. —Campanulate or urceolate, adnate to the ovary at the base, the free part erect, 
contracted or scarcely dilated; lobes five, imbricate or open, herbaceous or more or less 
scarious, and then occasionally irregularly confluent. 
ret ah. —Five, orbicular, spreading. 
Stamens. —Indefinite, much longer than the petals, united in five distinct bundles opposite the 
petals ; the united part or claw usually flattened, from very short and broad to long and 
linear; the filaments (or free parts) filiform, either pinnately arranged along the margin of 
the claw or clustered or digitate at the end, or covering also the inner face. 
Anthers. —Versatile, the cells parallel, opening longitudinally. 
Ovary. —Enclosed in the calyx-tube, inferior or semi-inferior, the convex summit villous (except 
in M. calycina ) with a central depression round the style; three-celled, with indefinite ovules 
in each cell, either numerous and closely packed on the outer surface of a peltate placenta, 
or few and ascending on a short peltate or two-fid placenta. 
Style. —Filiform, with a peltate capitate, or frequently very small stigma. 
Capsule. —Enclosed in the enlarged and hardened calyx, crowned by the cup-shaped or annular 
free part of the tube, the lobes rarely persistent, opening loculicidally at the top in three 
valves, and occasionally separable from the calyx into three cocci. 
Seeds. —More or less cuneate, the perfect ones usually few, testa thin. 
Embryo. —Straight or scarcely curved. 
Cotyledons. —Flat, plano-convex or folded, and embracing each other, longer than the radicle. 
Shrubs or trees. 
Leaves. —Alternate, or in a few species opposite, entire, usually coriaceous, flat, concave, or 
semiterete, 1-3 or several nerved, very rarely thinner with recurved margins. 
Flowers. —Red, white, or yellow, closely sessile and solitary within each bract or floral leaf, in 
heads or spikes, or rarely solitary and scattered, the axis of the spike usually growing out 
during or after the flowering. 
Fruiting (pike. —Forming the base of the new branch. 
Bracts .—Usually scale-like, and often imbricate in the young spike, but usually deciduous long 
before flowering. 
Bracteoles. —Usually small and deciduous, or sometimes none. 
Botanical description. —Species, M. Leucadendron, Linn , Mant., 105. 
A tree often attaining a considerable size, with a thick, often spongy bark, peeling off in layers; 
the branches slender and often pendulous, but in some situations remaining a small tree or 
shrub with rigid erect branches. 
