with . . . four teals (<i>Querquedula
castanea</i>)." [The old name.]

<hw>Tea-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. (Very frequently, but
erroneously, spelt <i>Ti-tree</i>, and occasionally,
more ridiculously still, <i>Ti-tri</i>, q.v.) A name given
in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania to several species
of trees and shrubs whose leaves were used by Captain Cook's
sailors, by escaped convicts, and by the early settlers as
a ready substitute for the leaves of the Chinese Tea-plant
(<i>Thea chinensis</i>) for making tea. The trees of the
genera <i>Leptospermum</i> and <i>Melaleuca</i> 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.
Their leaves, though exceedingly aromatic, have not, however,
the same flavour. Nevertheless, it was probably this superficial
likeness which first suggested the experiment of making an
infusion from them. Some of the species of <i>Leptospermum</i>
and <i>Melaleuca</i> are so closely allied, that their names
are by some botanists interchanged and used as synonyms for the
same plant.

Although not all of the species of these two genera were used
for making tea, yet, as a tree-name, the word <i>Tea-tree</i>
is indifferently and loosely used to denote nearly all of them,
especially in the form <i>Tea-tree scrub</i>, where they grow,
as is their habit, in swamps, flat-land, and coastal districts.
Other trees or plants to which the name of <i>Tea-tree</i> was
occasionally given, are species of the genera <i>Kunzea</i>
and <i>Callistemon</i>.

The spelling <i>Ti-tree</i> is not only erroneous as to the
origin of the name, but exceedingly misleading, as it confuses
the Australian <i>Tea-tree</i> with another <i>Ti</i> (q.v.)
in Polynesia (<i>Cordyline ti</i>). This latter genus is
represented, in Australia and New Zealand, by the two species
<i>Cordyline australis</i> and <i>C. indivisa</i>,
the <i>Cabbage-trees</i> (q.v.), or <i>Cabbage palms</i> (q.v.),
or <i>Ti-palms</i> (q.v.), or <i>Ti</i> (q.v.), which are a
marked feature of the New Zealand landscape, and are of the
lily family (<i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>), while the genera
<i>Leptospermum</i> and <i>Melaleuca</i> are of the myrtle
family (<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>).

As to the species of the Australian <i>Tea-tree</i>, that first
used by Cook's sailo