Austral English Part 262

"The beer certainly contributed not a little. As I have already observed, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce leaves; but finding that this alone made the beer too astringent, we afterwards mixed with it an equal quant.i.ty 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."

[On page 100, Cook gives a description of the tea-plant, and also 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 much branched... . It most nearly approaches the Leptospermum virgatum of Forster, referred by the younger Linnaeus, perhaps improperly, to Melaleuca."

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

"Of course they [the Bushrangers] are subject to numerous privations, particularly in the articles of tea, sugar, tobacco, and bread; for this latter article, however, they subst.i.tute the wild yam, and for tea they drink a decoction of the sa.s.safras and other shrubs, particularly one which they call 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 a subst.i.tute for the genuine plant in the early period of the colony, and from their containing a saccharine matter required no sugar."

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

"This boy got some bark from a tree called the tea-tree, which makes excellent torches."

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

"The tea-tree grows in wet situations ... the leaves infused make a pleasant beverage, and with a little sugar form a most excellent subst.i.tute for tea."

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

"Leptospermum lanigerum, h.o.a.ry tea-tree; Acacia decurrens, Black wattle; Conaea alba, Cape-Barren tea. The leaves of these have been used as subst.i.tutes for tea in the colony, as have also the leaves and bark of Cryptocarya glaucescens, the Australian Sasafras"

(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 thick cl.u.s.ters, shading rocky springs... . Its leaves I have seen made into a beverage called tea. It, however, was loathsome, and had not the slightest resemblance to any known Chinese 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 houses with."

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

"A great quant.i.ty 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 subst.i.tute 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 the stream."

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 native tea-trees, inappropriately so called, as these bushes and trees never yield subst.i.tutes for tea, although a New Zealand species was used in Captain Cook's early expedition, to prepare a medicinal infusion against scurvy; these so-called tea-trees comprise within our colony [Victoria], species of Leptospermum, Kunzea, Melaleuca and Callistemon, the last-mentioned genus producing flowers with long stamens, on which the appellation of `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 the atmosphere."

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

"Thickets of tea-tree, white with lovely hawthorn-like flowers."

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

"Along the water's edge, n.o.ble t.i.trees, whose drooping branches swept the stream, formed a fringe, the dark green of their thick 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: