Melaleuca

“ Filamenta multa longissima, connata in quinque corpora. Pistillum unum. Capsula 3-locularis.
Cup five-cleft, half above. Petals five. Threads numerous, very long, united into five bodies. Pointal 1. Capsule 3-celled.
See Melaleuca ericæfolia, Pl. 175. Vol. III.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Melaleuca foliis oppositis, lanceolatis, enerviis, glaberrimis; floribus sessilibus, ad basin ramulorum confertis; filamentis pinnatis, incurvatis, purpureis.
Melaleuca with opposite, lance-shaped leaves, without nerves and very smooth; flowers grow close to the branches, and crowded together at their base ”

“ With some difficulty we extricated ourselves from these rocky ridges, and, crossing a large creek, entered a level plain covered with melaleuca scrub. Crossing two sandy creeks fifteen and twenty yards wide with shallow pools, at noon reached a barren range of white sandstone hills, rising about 250 feet. Beyond this entered an open grassy plain, with clumps of melaleuca-trees, indicating the existence of springs of water, one of which we reached at 1.25 p.m., and encamped. The country passed is of a worthless description, there being very little grass, and the soil very poor and stony. ”

“ A wash is made from the bruised bark of the gutta-percha tree, Excæcaria parviflora. The leaves of Loranthus quandong, the mistletoe of the Acacia hemalophylla, are infused in water and drunk for fevers, ague, etc.; it is doubtful whether they have any virtue, but mistletoe was once a very highly prized medicine in Europe, though now wholly obsolete. The leaves of Melaleuca leucadendron are used in infusion for headache, colds, and general sickness. The melaleuca is the cajeput tree, and cajeput oil is undoubtedly a valuable medicine. ”

“ The trees of the genera Leptospermum and Melaleuca were the earliest used, in Australia and New Zealand, in this way. When in blossom, the branches of many species, with their little white flowers, and the general appearance of their leaves, bear a strong resemblance to those of the true Tea-plant. ”

“ The island is formed by a succession of small hills and intervening valleys; and although the soil is very poor, being principally a mixture of quartzose sand and a large proportion of marine exuviae, yet this tree grows to a considerable size, but covering the surface of the island, gives it a monotonous appearance which is however occasionally relieved by a spreading undescribed species of melaleuca (allied to Melaleuca armillaris, Smith) and the more elegant pittosporum, an arborescent species, also undescribed. ”

“ In the scantily shaded forests of New Holland the optical effects here alluded to are the more frequent, since two groups of Myrtaceæ and Leguminosæ, species of Eucalyptus and Acacia, there constitute nearly one-half of all the greyish-green tree vegetation. Moreover, between the bast-layers of Melaleuca, there are formed easily soluble membranes, which force their way outwards, and by their whiteness reminds us of our birch bark. ”

“ Leptospermum, of which, nearly 30 Australian species have been observed, exists also in New Zealand and in the Moluccas. In Terra Australis its maximum is decidedly in the principal parallel, and like Melaleuca, it is much more abundant in the southern regions than within the tropic. ”

“ July 4.--We travelled seven miles in a south-west direction, to lat. 16 degrees 15 minutes 11 seconds, over an entirely flat country, covered with a very open forest of box, of bloodwood, and of the stiff-leaved Melaleuca, with the arborescent Grevillea already mentioned, and with a species of Terminalia with winged fruit. In the more sandy tracts of bloodwood forest, grew the Nonda, the Pandanus, and the apple-gum. The shallow creek was surrounded by a scrub of various myrtaceous trees, particularly Melaleucas. ”

“ At 8.5 a.m. steered east-north-east through box-flats with broad-leafed melaleuca, with a little grass. The country gradually became more scrubby with grevillia, terminalia, bloodwood, and triodia; the soil very poor, and in some parts sand and gravel. At 2.0 p.m. altered the course to north, and at 5.50 came to a dry creek in a rocky channel trending west, which we followed down till 6.15, and camped without water. ”

“ This plant is well known by the title of cordigera, a specific derived from the resemblance the lip of the nectarium is supposed to bear to the shape of a heart: but the analogy is certainly not very powerful. The flowers remain a considerable time in perfection. It is indigenous to Spain, Barbary, Italy, [Pg 87] &c.
[Pg 88]
PLATE CCCCLXXVI. MELALEUCA DIOSMÆFOLIA.
Diosma-leaved Melaleuca.
CLASS XVIII. ORDER IV.
POLYADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. Threads in many Sets. Many Chives.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
Calyx quinquefidus, semisuperus. ”

“ Starting at 6.40 a.m., traversed an undulating sandstone country on a south-east course till 1.15 p.m., when we came on a large dry sandy creek, which we followed to the north-north-east till 1.50, when we found a shallow pool, at which we encamped. This creek had a sandy channel ten yards wide, with low banks, subject to flood to the breadth of fifty to eighty yards. Pandanus, melaleuca, and flooded-gum grow on its banks. The country generally is poor and stony, with paper-bark, gum, bloodwood, and narrow-leafed melaleuca. ”

“ During the forenoon the river became much hemmed in by steep rocky hills, the bed being a succession of rapids, over a bare, rocky channel; but after the noon halt the stream came more from the south-east, with wide grassy flats on either side, in many parts very boggy, and producing Melaleuca leucodendron, with tall, straight stems, and a variety of eucalyptus, resembling Eucalyptus piperita. White sandstone and shales began to make their appearance on the banks, and the water in the river had a saline taste. ”

“ Fine melaleucas were growing on each side, which with their long pendulous shoots and narrow silvery leaves, afforded a fine shade from the heat of the sun. There was plenty both of grass and water for the horses, but most of them continued to grow weaker. ”

“ The inhabitants of these mountains appeared to us to live in the greatest wretchedness. They were all extremely meagre. They sleep in the open air without being tormented by the musquitoes; for these insects are driven from the high grounds by the E.S.E. winds, which blow here almost incessantly. The same winds are so prejudicial to vegetation, that trees which below grow to a great height, here wear the appearance of shrubs. Melaleuca latifolia, for example, is scarcely fourteen inches high, whereas on the hills it attains the height of twenty-seven or thirty feet. ”

“ The Cycas disappeared as we receded from the river. We passed a small scrubby creek, and a long tract of stringy-bark forest, mixed with bloodwood and Pandanus, and patches of Cypress pine. Here we again observed the gum-tree with orange blossoms and large ribbed seed-vessels, which we found at the upper Lynd, and had called Melaleuca gum. Sterculia was frequent, and we collected a great quantity of its ripe seeds. We passed several dry swamps, surrounded with tea-tree thickets, and heaps of fresh water mussel shells. A rich iron-stone rock cropped out frequently ”

“ It has long broad falcate phyllodia, whilst another species of the same size has an irregular scaly bark, with small phyllodia, but of a greyer colour than those of the common Bricklow. Both species grow promiscuously together. Where the river left the scrub, it entered into a wild water-worn box flat, and cut up into several irregular channels, lined by a dense thicket of narrow-leaved Melaleucas of stunted growth and irregular shapes. The Box-tree itself is here a different species, the bark has deeper fissures, and the young wood is very yellow. ”

“ M. striata, Lab., and Hugelii, Endl., and viminea,22 a species near M. armillaris, have spikes of white; M. spinosa23 forms a spiny bush, with oval spreading leaves and slender spikes of yellow; and M. Radula24 is a shrub with long linear leaves, rough with tubercles, among which are scattered a few fine lilac (?) flowers, with a large capitate stigma, and stamens disunited almost to the base of their phalanges; this latter species seems to form a passage from the genus Melaleuca to that of Metrosideros. ”

“ The trees on the sandy ground were broad-leafed Melaleucas, Grevilleas, and nondas, and by the waterholes which we occasionally saw, were Stravadiums and drooping Melaleucas. I also saw a species of Stravadium with racemes of white flowers, much longer than the others, with leaves ten inches long by four inches broad, and the trees thirty feet high. Keeping at a distance from the sea-coast to avoid the saltwater creeks, and to obtain good grass for our horses, we halted in the middle of the day, and were visited by a great many natives, coming in all directions, and making a great noise. ”

“ A little above the mangroves the river divides into several small creeks, in swampy ground, covered with small melaleucas so thickly, that although they are not at all bushy below, but have straight trunks of from three to five inches in diameter, and from ten to twenty feet high, a man can scarcely walk between them. ”

“ All this day we continued travelling over very uneven country, full of precipitous rocks and gullies, until we came to a bend of the river: we now followed it in its tortuous course through the rocks, till we came to a flat country where its channels were divided by high green banks, on which were growing large drooping tea-trees (melaleucas) ; growing on these I found a beautiful species of Loranthus, with large fascicles of orange coloured flowers, the leaves cordate, and clasping the stem. ”

“ Some of the Melaleucas; in the conservatory had grown to the height of nearly forty feet; the Magnolia grandiflora, which requires the protection of the conservatory during the winter months was now covered with fine large flowers. Numerous other species of New Holland plants, had grown to an amazing height in the conservatory.
The hothouses in this garden are placed in several separate ranges, and are very substantially built in comparison to our erections in England. The quantity of timber employed in the rafters is immense, but giving them a very heavy appearance ”

“ The succulent fruits are not only edible but agreeable, and in fevers are freely administered as a cooling drink. The Spanish Americans plant the Opuntias around their houses, where they serve as impenetrable fences.
Melocactus, the genus of melon-thistle or Turk's-cap cactuses, contains, according to a recent estimate, about 90 species, which inhabit chiefly the West Indies, Mexico and Brazil, a few extending into New Granada. The typical species, M. communis, forms a succulent mass of roundish or ovate form, from 1 ft. to 2 ft. ”

“ MELILOT, the Common, Melilot-trefoil, King's-claver, or Harts-clover, Trifolium Melilotus officinalis, L. an indigenous plant, growing on a stiff soil; on ditch banks; in thickets, hedges; corn-fields and meadows; flowering in the months of June and July.—This plant is eaten by sheep, goats, cows, hogs, and particularly by horses, which devour it with great avidity. Its fragrance increases when dry; and if its flowers be distilled, they yield a water, which, though possessing little odour in itself, imparts a very grateful flavour to other substances. ”

“ When you plant only a few in a garden, mulch your musk-melons with chips or sawdust from the wood-yard, or leaves and decayed wood from the forest, and you will get a great growth. They will grow luxuriantly in a pile of chips, with a little soil, in a door-yard, where hardly any other plant would flourish. The water-melon does best in almost pure sand, if it be enriched with liquid or some other of the finer manures. Plant musk-melons six feet apart, and water-melons nine feet each way. When the plants become established, never leave more than two or three in a hill. ”

“ The water-melons revelled in the heat, and Olive revelled in the water-melons: for by a blessed compensation of Nature the hotter and drier the land, the cooler and juicier the water-melons seem to be. The water-melon of the western prairie is as different from the pallid green-fleshed vegetable which masquerades under its name in this country, as the full moon of the heavens is superior to the lime-light article manufactured for use on the stage. ”

“ They are minute, stingless bees, which store up honey and live in colonies often of immense extent. The cells of Melipona are hexagonal, nearly approaching in regularity those of the Hive bee, while the honey cells are irregular, being much larger cavities, which hold about one-half as much honey as a cell of the Humble bee. "Gardner, in his travels, states that many species of Melipona build in the hollow trunks of trees, others in banks; some suspend their nests from the branches of trees, whilst one species constructs its nest of clay, it being of large size." ”

“ The culture of the Water-melon is simple enough. They choose for the purpose a light soil, as that of a rising ground, well exposed: they make holes in the earth, from two and a half to three feet in diameter, and distant from each other fifteen feet every way, in each of which holes they put five or six seeds. When the seeds are come up, and the young plants have struck out five or six leaves, the four most thriving plants are pitched upon, and the others plucked up to prevent their starving each other, when too numerous. ”