92 
Vernacular names. —Like so many Australian Myrtaceous trees and shrubs 
it is known as “ Tea-tree.” Because of the broadness of its leaves it is usually 
known by the name “ Broad-leaved Tea-tree.” It is known also as “ Swamp Tea- 
tree ” because (with other species of the genus) it grows in swamps. Because of the 
foliaceous character of its bark, which gives the trunk a whitish appearance, it is 
known as “Paper-bark tree” and “White Tea-tree.” Baron Mueller calls it the 
“ Tropical Paper-bark tree.” I have heard that it is called “ Milkwood ” ip the 
Northern Territory. 
Aboriginal names.—“ Numbah ” of the aborigines of the southern part of 
New South Wales, according to the late Sir William Macarthur. I would suggest 
that this is the origin of the name of the township of Numba, near the mouth of 
the Shoalhaven River. It is “Belbowrie,” of the county of Gloucester, as far as 
Kempsey at least, hence the place-name Belbowrie, near Krambach, New South 
Wales. * 
It bears a number of aboriginal names in Queensland. They are quoted 
by Mr. Bailey as follows:—“Mor-ngi,” Palmer lliver (Roth); “ Ivyenbooree,” 
Mackay (Nugent); “Bichuma,” Forest Hill (Macartney); “ Atchoourgoo,” 
Mitchell River (Palmer) ; “ Oodgeroo,” Stradbroke Island (Watkins), to which 
may be added “Betliar,” Port Curtis (Hedley). 
Synonyms. — M. minor , Sm.; M. Cajeputi, Roxb.; M. viridifolia, Gaertn.; 
M. saligna, Blume, Mus. Bot. i, 66, with the several synonyms quoted by 
De Candolle, Prod, iii, 212, and Blume; Metrosideros cilbida, Sieb. PI. Exs., referred 
in Spreng Syst. Cur. Post 194 to M. coriacea (attributed by mistake to Labill. 
instead of Salisb. Prod., 352). 
Bentham says :— 
This species varies exceedingly in the size, shape, and texture of the leaves—in the young shoots 
very silky or the spikes silky-villous or woolly or the whole quite glabrous; in the short and dense or long 
and interrupted spikes; in the size of the flowers, in the greenish-yellow, whitish, pink, or purple stamens, 
&c., and at first sight it is difficult to believe that they all can be forms of one species, but on examination, 
none of these variations are sufficiently constant or so combined as to allow of the definition of distinct 
races. In general the name of M. leucadendron is given to the glabrous forms, and M. minor to the silky 
or villous-flowered ones, but the indumentum is here the most uncertain of all characters. M. lancifolia , 
Turcz., in Bull. Mosc., 18-17, I, 164, and M. Cumingiana, Turez., l.c., from the Philippine Islands, belong to 
one of the common Archipelago forms with rather thin leaves and small flowers, and I cannot find the 
auricles of the staminal bundles mentioned as characterising the former. M. Cunninghami, Schau., in 
Walp. Rep., ii, 927, is a large silky form with broad thick leaves and large flowers. M. saligna, Schau., 
l.c.,- from Endeavour River, is more glabrous, with long acuminate leaves and long glabrous interrupted 
spikes. M. mimosoides , A. Cunn., Schau., l.c., is very little different from the last. Some specimens from 
Rockingham Bay, Dallachy, and from Endeavour River, R. Brown, are remarkable for their dark-coloured 
stamens. 
Leaves — Oil.— The young leaves are bruised in water and the liquid drunk 
for headaches and colds, and general sickness ; the bark is also used for bedding, 
&c., on the Mitchell River, Queensland (E. Palmer). But by far the most .important 
use of this tree is for the oil the leaves contain; this is the well-known “Cajeput 
oil” of commerce. 
