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PLATE DCXXII.
L E P T O S P E R M U M scoparium.
JVezo Zealand Tea.
•iUl
CLASS xn. ORDER L
ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNTA. Stamens from the Calyx. One Style.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 5-fidus, semisuperus. Pétala quinqué,
ungiiiculata, starainibus longiora. Stigma
capitatum. Capsula 4- seu 5-locularis, polysperma.
Semina angulosa.
CUP 5-cleft, free above tlie middle. Petals five,
clawed, and longer than the stamens. Stigma
headed. Capsula 4- or 5-celled, manyseeded.
Seeds angular.
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SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
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Le p t o s p e r m um foliis ovatis ovato-lanceolatisque
mucronatis obsolete trinerviis ; calycibus
glabris, dentibus membranaceis coloratis.
L. scoparium. Willd. sp. pi. 2. p. 048.
Le p t o s p e k m um with ovate and pvate-lanced
dagger-pointed faintly 3-iierved leaves, and
smooth calyces with membranaceous coloured
teeth.
Tea Plant. Cook's Second Voyage, vol. I. p. 100. tal. 32.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. Empalement, chives, and pointai.
2. The same cut open, one tip magnified.
3. Seed-bud and pointai, summit magnified.
4. A petal.
T h « Leptospermum scoparium grows naturally in New Zealand, where it was found in Cook's
first voyage of discovery in the year 176g, and was first published with an engraving of the fructification
in 1776, by the two Forsters, in their Characteres Generum Plantarum, or Account of the
Plants they collected in that expedition. The following description of the plant, and accounts of the
benefits his people derived from it, are extracted from Captain Cook's Account of his Second Voyage,
vol. i. p. 99 to 101.
" The Tea plant is a small tree or shruTj, with five white petals or flower-leaves, shaped like those of a
rose, having smaller ones of the same figure in the intermediate spaces, and twenty or more filaments
or threads. The tree sometimes grows to a moderate height, and is generally bare on the lower part,
with a number of small branches growing close together towards the top. The leaves are small and
pointed like those of the myrtle ; it bears a dry roundish seed-case, and grows commonly in dry places
near the shores. The leaves, as I have already observed, were used by many of us as tea, which has
a very agreeable bitter and flavour when they are recent, but loses some of both when they are dried.
When the infusion was made strong, it proved emetic to some, in the same manner as green tea.
" The beer certainly contributed not a little to the healthiness of our people. As I have already observed,
we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce leaves (Dacrydium cupressinum) ; but finding
that this alone made the beer too astringent, we afterwards mixed it with an equal quantity of the Tea
plant, (a name it obtained in my former voyage from our using it as tea then, as we also did now,) which
partly destroyed the astringency of the other, and made the beer exceedingly palatable, and esteemed
by every one on board."
In the younger Forster's account of the same expedition, vol. i. p. 123 and 129, a similar account of
its utility and beauty is given, with the additional information, that, in a fine soil, in thick forests, it
was found from 30 to 40 feet high, and above a foot in diameter; while on a hilly arid situation he
found it bearing flowers and seed when only 6 inches high.
The plant was introduced to the Royal Gardens at Kew so early as 1772, and several varieties of it
are now in cultivation. It is increased both by seeds and cuttings, and requires to be kept in the Greenhouse
or Conservatory.
Specimens were communicated by Mr. Dona from the botanic garden at Cambridge last May, and
lOthers in June by Mr. Milne from Fonthill.
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