Flora Medica

MYRTACE.E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 43.MELALEUCA.Calyx-tube nearly hemispherical limb ; 5-partite. Petals 5.Stamens numerous, combined into 5 elongated bundles, whichalternate with the petals. Anthers incumbent. Style filiform.Stigma obtuse. Capsule connate with and enclosed in thethickened tube of the calyx, which is sessile on and adnate atits base to the flower-bearing branch : 3-celled, many-seeded.Seeds angular Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite,sessile orquite entire, equal at the base. Flowers perfectlysomewhat combined with the branch, arranged in spikes or heads,white or yellowish or purplish. W. and A.150. M. Cajuputi Roxb.fi. ind. iii. 394-. W. and Am. i. 326.S. and C. ii. t. 84. M. minor Smith in Rees. iii.DC.prodr. 212.M. Leucadendron Lam. illustr. t. 641. f. 4. Arbor alba javanicaii.Rumph. 74. Moluccas.Trunk tolerably erect, but crooked, and slender for the age of thetrees. Bark of a very light or whitish ash-colour, soft, thick, andspongy, pretty smooth on the surface, the exterior part peeling off fromtime to time in thin flakes, like that of the birch tree ; and the interiorpart separable into numerous lamellae, like the leaves of a book.Branches scattered, with the slender twigs often drooping as completelyas in the weeping willow, round and smooth j young shoots sericeous.Leaves alternate, projecting in every direction, but most frequently vertical,short-stalked, narrow-lanceolate, while young sericeous, sometimesslightly falcate, entire, from 3 to 5 inches long and from ^ to fof an inch broad ;on being bruised they smell strong of the balsamthey yield, yet the cells which contain this aromatic fluid, are scarcelyvisible in the fresh leaves. Spikes terminal, and from the extremeaxills, downy while in flower there ; is only a scaly conic bud at theapex, which soon advances into a leafy branchlet. Bracts solitary,lanceolate, silky, 3-flowered, caducous. Flowers ternate, sessile, small,white, scentless. Calyx urceolate, half-superior, sericeous ; margins of5 rounded deciduous segments. Petals 5, orbicular, short-clawed, white,much longer than the segments of the calyx. Filaments from 30 to 40,united into five portions at the base, 3 or 4 times longer than the petals,and with them inserted into the large, villous, 5-lobed rim of the calyx,alternate with its segments. Anthers ovate-cordate, with a yellowglandon the apex. Ovary ovate, with the lower half united to thecalyx, 3-celled, with numerous ovules attached to an elevated receptaclein the inner and lower angle of each cell ; style rather longerthan the stamens ; stigma obscurely 3-lobed. Capsules completelyenveloped in the thick, fleshy, gibbous, permanent calyx, 3-lobed,73