01 
Leaves. —Alternate, often vertical, elliptical or lanceolate, straight, oblique or falcate, acuminate, 
acute or obtuse ; when broad, very rigid, and 2 to 4 inches long; when narrow, sometimes 
6 to 8 inches long; narrowed into a petiole, 3 to 7 nerved with anastomosing veins. 
Flow^r-sjAfces. —Elongated, more or less interrupted, solitary or two or three together, from under 
2 to 6 inches long, at first terminal, but the axis growing out after flowering into a leafy 
branch ; the rhachis and calyces glabrous, pubescent, tomentose, or woolly. • 
Calyx-tube.— Ovoid, usually about 14 lines long; lobes short, orbicular, often scarious on the 
margin. 
* Petals .—1 to 1 1 lines diameter. Staminal bundles under 1 inch long, the claws sometimes 
exceedingly short, sometimes exceeding the petals, each with five to eight filaments at the end. 
Ovules.— Numerous, ascending on an oblong placenta. 
Fruiting-culyx .—Usually about 2 lines diameter, varying from globular to almost hemispherical. 
Seed. —Obovoid or cuneate. 
Cotyledons. —Obovate, thick, much longer than the radicle. (B.F1., iii, 143.) 
Varieties. —Var. (?) parvifolia. Leaves mostly J to 1 inch long. Flowers small, and only very 
slightly pentadelphous, M. lanceolata, R.Br., Herb. ; Callistemon nervosus, Lindl., in Mitch. Trop. Austr., 
335 ; Leptospermum speciosum, Schau., in Walp. Rep. ii, 923 (described from Cunningham’s sjrecimen in 
bud only); behind the Government House, Sydney, R. Brown; rocks, Balmy Creek, in the interior of 
Queensland, Mitchell; Moreton Bay, A. Cunningham. This may prove to be a distinct species, but I can 
find no character to distinguish it from the small-leaved specimens of M. leucadendron (B.F1., iii, 143). 
I have not seen Bentliam’s var. pctrvifolia, but I do not doubt that the 
“ Government House, Sydney,” locality plant is that afterwards described by 
Mueller ( Proc . Linn . Soc., N.S.W., xi, 1106, 1886) as Melaleuca Deanei. See also 
“ Synonvms.” 
1 1 v 
Mr. F. M. Bailey ( Queensland Flora) recognises three varieties in 
Queensland. 
1. Var. lancifolia ,* Bail.—A large tree, common in the south. 
2. Var. sctligna, + Bail.—-A drooping tree from tropical localities. 
3. Var. Cunninghamii, Bail.—A small tree, also from tropical localities; has 
dark-red flowers. (A Queensland form with “dark-coloured stamens” was 
collected by B. Brown and Dallachy. See B.F1., iii, 113.) 
The tropical forms (of which there are many) should be compared with the 
tropical varieties Cajeputi and minor, and perhaps others. It would be desirable 
for a monographer to re-examine all the forms of this variable species. 
Botanical name.— Melaleuca. —From two Greek Avoids melas , black, and 
leukos, white, because the trunk of the first tree described Avas black and the 
branches Avliite. The explanation probably is that trunk and branches AA'ere 
alike papery and Avliite, hut that the trunk (as is often the case) Avas charred 
by a fire, giving it a blackish appearance. Leucadendron, also from tAvo Greek 
Avords, leukos, Avliite, and dendron, a tree, lienee “White tree” from its general 
appearance. In fact, we in Australia sometimes call it “ White Tea-tree.” 
* This name would appear to be prc-occupied unless it is M. lancifolia, Turcz., which is a form of M. h ucadendron, 
as Bentham has pointed out. 
t I do not know whether this is M. saligna, Schauer, from the Endeavour River. 
C 
