LEPTOSPERMUM SCOPARIUM, Forster. 
THE MANUKA. 
OrpDER—MYRTACEA. 
(Plate CXVIL.) 
Tue manuka, or, as it is less frequently termed, the ‘‘ kahikatoa,” is the most 
common plant in the colony, being found in great abundance in every district, 
and occupying the place of the furze (Ulex europeus) in the British Islands. In 
some localities hundreds of acres are covered with a dense growth of small 
manuka, from 6in. to as many feet in height; in other places large areas are 
covered with a close coppice-like growth of straight stems, roft. to 15ft. high and 
the thickness of a man’s wrist; more rarely this plant assumes an arborescent 
form, and attains the height of 3oft., with a trunk rarely 2ft. in diameter, the 
reddish-brown bark often hanging in long ribbons. When its seed falls on 
eround which is flooded during the winter and spring months, the young plants 
appear in vast numbers, but myriads die off as the ground gradually becomes 
hard during the summer months ; but a dense crowd survives until the following 
spring, when the majority develop a single flower at the apex of the stem, 
numbers varying from din. to 2in. or 3in. in height; but the production of 
flowers in this early stage of growth is too exhausting, and but few survive. 
Flowers are, however, produced freely on dwarf plants from ft. to 2ft. high: 
small specimens when growing luxuriantly make long slender shoots, and, as the 
white flowers are produced in profusion, they present a very graceful appearance 
during the flowering season, which commences during the early part of Novem- 
ber, and is protracted until the close of January, or longer in the Auckland 
District, where it is not difficult to find a few flowers nearly all the year round. 
This species varies to.a great extent in habit as well as in the form of the 
leaves and the dimensions of the flowers. The branches may be spreading, or 
strict and ascending: on the mountains the plant is often prostrate and spread- 
ing, not exceeding tin, or 2in. in height: the leaves may be erect or spreading, 
or curved backwards, narrow or broad or almost rounded, and the flowers may 
vary from less than jin. to upwards of Zin. in diameter. The branches are very 
slender, and, with the young leaves, are clothed with silky hairs: the leaves may 
vary from #in. to nearly }in. in length, and are of stiff texture, quite entire, with 
acute or pungent tips: they are dotted with minute oil-glands, and vary much in 
width, some being almost needle-shaped, others being half as broad as long, and 
erect or spreading. ‘The flowers are fragrant, solitary, and may be produced in 
‘the axils of the leaves or at the extremities of short branchlets. The calyx is 
entire, and forms a cup with five white lobes, which resemble small petals, 
and quickly fall away; five free petals, rounded at the tips, spring from its 
margin. The stamens are numerous, with very short filaments, and form a ring 
within the petals: the ovary is deeply sunk within the calyx-tube, with which it 
is closely adherent: it is four- or five-celled, with a short straight style and a 
rounded or lobed stigma. As the ovary ripens into. fruit it rises above the calyx- 
tube and becomes woody, forming a woody capsule containing numerous minute 
seeds. The vast majority of flowers are perfect, but, as in many plants which 
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