tea-tree

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


(Very frequently, buterroneously, spelt Ti-tree, and occasionally,more ridiculously still, Ti-tri, q.v.) A name givenin Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania to several speciesof trees and shrubs whose leaves were used by Captain Cook'ssailors, by escaped convicts, and by the early settlers asa ready substitute for the leaves of the Chinese Tea-plant( Thea chinensis) for making tea. The trees of thegenera Leptospermum and Melaleuca were theearliest used, in Australia and New Zealand, in this way.When in blossom, the branches of many species, with theirlittle white flowers, and the general appearance of theirleaves, 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 superficiallikeness which first suggested the experiment of making aninfusion from them. Some of the species of Leptospermumand Melaleuca are so closely allied, that their namesare by some botanists interchanged and used as synonyms for thesame plant.

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

The spelling Ti-tree is not only erroneous as to theorigin of the name, but exceedingly misleading, as it confusesthe Australian Tea-tree with another Ti (q.v.)in Polynesia ( Cordyline ti). This latter genus isrepresented, in Australia and New Zealand, by the two species Cordyline australis and C. indivisa,the Cabbage-trees (q.v.), or Cabbage palms (q.v.),or Ti-palms (q.v.), or Ti (q.v.), which are amarked feature of the New Zealand landscape, and are of thelily family ( N.O. Liliaceae), while the genera Leptospermum and Melaleuca are of the myrtlefamily ( N.O. Myrtaceae).

As to the species of the Australian Tea-tree, that firstused by Cook's sailors was either – – Leptospermumscoparium, R. and G. Forst.,

or L. lanigerum, Smith.

The species most used for infusions was – – L. fravescens, Smith (syn. L. thea, Willd.,and Melaleuca thea, Willd.).

The Coast Tea-tree, common on the Victorian shores,and so useful as a sand-binder, is – – L. laevigatum, F. v. M.

The Common Australian Tea-tree (according to Maiden) is Melaleuca leucodendron, Linn.; called also WhiteTea-tree, Broad-leaved T. – t., Swamp T. – t.,and Paper-bark T. – t.

The name, however, as noted above, is used for all speciesof Melaleuca, the Swamp Tea-tree being M. ericifolia, Smith, and the Black,or Prickly-leaved Tea-tree, M. styphelioides,Smith.

Of the other genera to which the name is sometimes applied, Kunzea pedunculata, F. v. M., is called MountainTea-tree, and Callistemon salignus, De C., iscalled – – Broad-leaved, or River Tea-tree.

In New Zealand, the Maori name Manuka (q.v.) is moregenerally used than Tea-tree, and the tree denoted byit is the original one used by Cook's sailors.

Concerning other plants, used in the early days for makingspecial kinds of infusions and drinking them as tea,see under Tea, and Cape-Barren Tea.

1777. Cook's `Voyage towards the South Pole and Round theWorld' [2nd Voyage], vol. i. p. 99:

«The beer certainly contributed not a little. As I have alreadyobserved, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruceleaves; but finding that this alone made the beertoo astringent, we afterwards mixed with it an equal quantityof the tea plant (a name it obtained in my former voyage fromour using it as tea then, as we also did now), which partlydestroyed the astringency of the other, and made the beerexceedingly palatable, and esteemed by every one on board.»

[On page 100, Cook gives a description of the tea-plant, andalso figures it. He was then at Dusky Bay, New Zealand.]

1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 229:

«Tea Tree of New South Wales, Melaleuca (?) Trinervia. This is a small shrub, very muchbranched. . . . It most nearly approaches the Leptospermumvirgatum of Forster, referred by the younger Linnaeus,perhaps improperly, to Melaleuca.»

1820. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and DescriptiveDelineations of the Island of Van Dieman's Land,' p. 133:

«Of course they [the Bushrangers] are subject to numerousprivations, particularly in the articles of tea, sugar,tobacco, and bread; for this latter article, however, theysubstitute the wild yam, and for tea they drink a decoction ofthe sassafras and other shrubs, particularly one which theycall the tea-tree bush.»

1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,'p. 175:

«On Monday the bushrangers were at a house at Tea-tree Brush.»

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.p. 200:

«The leaves of the tea-tree furnished the colonists with asubstitute for the genuine plant in the early period of thecolony, and from their containing a saccharine matter requiredno sugar.»

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 78:

«This boy got some bark from a tree called the tea-tree, whichmakes excellent torches.»

1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 25:

«The tea-tree grows in wet situations . . . the leaves infusedmake a pleasant beverage, and with a little sugar form a mostexcellent substitute for tea.»

1834. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 134:

« Leptospermum lanigerum, Hoary tea-tree; Acaciadecurrens, Black wattle; Conaea alba, Cape-Barrentea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes for teain the colony, as have also the leaves and bark of Cryptocarya glaucescens, the Australian Sa safras» (sic) [q.v.].

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 39:

«The Australian myrtles, or tea-trees, are to be found in thickclusters, shading rocky springs. . . . Its leaves I haveseen made into a beverage called tea. It, however, wasloathsome, and had not the slightest resemblance to any knownChinese tea.»

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 85:

«Often we had to take the boat down the river several miles,to cut reeds amongst the tea-tree marshes, to thatch our houseswith.»

1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix;' p. 33:

«A great quantity of the tea-tree ( Leptospermum) scrubs,which formerly lined both banks of the Yarra.»

(p. 84): «It is allied to the myrtle family ( Melaleuca). . . A decoction of the leaves is a fair substitute for tea,yielding a beverage of a very aromatic flavour.»

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 210:

«Dense with tea-trees and wattles shrouding the courses of thestream.»

1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 126:

«Half-hidden in a tea-tree scrub,

A flock of dusky sheep were spread.»

1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 14:

«Through the tea-tree scrub we dashed.»

1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 70:

«Chiefly covered with fern and tea-tree (manuka) scrub.»

1871. T. Bracken, `Behind the Tomb,' p. 60:

«Sobbing through the tea-tree bushes,

Low and tender, loud and wild,

Melancholy music gushes.»

1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 2o6:

Table of Tasmanian woods found in low marshy ground.

Hgt. Dia. Used.

Swamp Tea-tree 12 ft. 6 in. Useless.

Tea-tree 30 «9» Turners' and Agricultural Musk Tea-tree 12 «small Implements.

1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 18:

«We have among them [the Myrtaceae] . . . the nativetea-trees, inappropriately so called, as these bushes and treesnever yield substitutes for tea, although a New Zealand specieswas used in Captain Cook's early expedition, to prepare amedicinal infusion against scurvy; these so-called tea-treescomprise within our colony [Victoria], species of Leptospermum,Kunzea, Melaleuca and Callistemon, the last-mentioned genusproducing flowers with long stamens, on which the appellationof `Bottle-brushes' has been bestowed.»

1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 78:

«Numerous flowering shrubs, such as the tea-tree, native lilac,and many another that varies the colour and softly scents theatmosphere.»

1880. Mrs.Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 221:

«Thickets of tea-tree, white with lovely hawthorn-likeflowers.»

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 19:

«Along the water's edge, noble titrees, whose drooping branchesswept the stream, formed a fringe, the dark green of theirthick foliage being relieved.»

1883. C. Harpur, `Poems,' p. 78:

«Why roar the bull-frogs in the tea-tree marsh?»

1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 84:

«Shading a brook the tea-trees grew,

Spangled with blossoms of whitish hue,

Which fell from the boughs to the ground below,

As fall from heaven the flakes of snow.»

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 112:

«The bottle-brush flowers of the ti-trees.»

1888. Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, `Select Extra-TropicalPlants,' p. 221:

«The somewhat aromatic leaves of Liscoparium (Forster)were already in Captain Cook's Expedition used for anantiscorbutic Tea, hence the name tea-tree for this and someallied plants.»

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 76:

«The intrusive ti-tree. . . . The dark line of ti-tree in theforeground . . .»

1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' pp. 235, 236:

« Leptospermum scoparium, Forster, the Manuka.. . . It is commonly termed `tea-tree' by the settlers, butmust not be confounded with the `ti' or `toi' of the Maories,which is a handsome palm-lily, Cordyline australis,often termed `cabbage-tree' by the bushmen.»

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 38:

« Leptospermum scoparium, Tea Tree. It is said that thisis the shrub the leaves of which were utilized by the crews ofCaptain Cook's ships for the purpose of making `tea,' and thatthey were also used with spruce leaves in equal quantity forthe purpose of correcting the astringency in brewing a beerfrom the latter. It is exceedingly common about Sydney, solarge quantities would therefore be available to the sailors.Species of this genus are exceedingly abundant not far from thecoast, and the leaves would be very readily available, but thetaste of the infusion made from them is too aromatic for theEuropean palate.»

[In Maiden's admirable book slips are very rare. But he ismistaken here in the matter of the abundance of the tree atSydney having any reference to the question. Captain Cook hadbut one ship, the Endeavour; and it never entered PortJackson. It is true that L. scoparium was the tree usedby Cook, but he was then at Dusky Bay, New Zealand, and it wasthere that he used it. See quotations 1777 and 1877.]

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 24:

«The well-known Melaleuca Leucadendron, called by thecolonists tea-tree, from which is extracted what is known inmedicine as cajeput oil.»

1893. `The Australasian,' Jan 14:

«The ti-tree on either side of the road was in bloom, its soft,fluffy, creamy bushes gathering in great luxuriance on the topsof the taller trees, almost hiding the green.»

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4:

«There was many a shorthorned Hereford hidden in the innermostrecesses of that tick and sand-fly infested ti-tree that knewnot the cunning of a stockman's hand.»

1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue – – Economic Woods':

«No. 133, Coast tea-tree, Leptospermum laevigatum, F. v. M. No. 142, Swamp tea-tree, Melaleuca ericifolia, Smith.»

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

← teal   ×   teetee →

Related Words