Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 6 (1802).djvu/374

302 this character, slight as it is, connected with any peculiarity of habit by which a Melaleuca can be known from a Metrosideros, nor, I believe, would any botanist venture to guess at a Melaleuca without seeing the stamina, in which the only peculiarity of the genus resides. What then is to be done, when even this peculiarity seems eluding our grasp? We can only retain the genus as an artificial one, along with many other such, till the science be arrived at a greater degree of perfection; keeping, the mean time, naturaI orders in view as the grand object of our systematic inquiries, and cherishing every truly natural genus as a fixed point, on which we may found the principles of future discoveries.

Mr. Alton favoured me with specimens of this plant three years ago from Kew Garden. The seeds were brought from Port Jackson. Its leaves agree very much in form with those of E. robusta, (next to which it ought to be placed,) but the footstalks are shorter, veins more prominent, and the margin more thickened, somewhat cartilaginous, and reddish. The umbels are solitary, axillary, and simple. Flowers scarcely one-third of the zize of the robusta, and their covers are neither broader than the calyx, nor longer; neither are they contracted in their middle. The flowers much resemble those of my E. pilularis, but the leaves are totally different.

Rh