"Tawa. A lofty forest tree, sixty to seventy feet high, with slender branches. The wood is light and soft, and is much used for making butter-kegs."
1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition':
"Tawhai. Large and durable timber, used for sleepers."
1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 125:
"Tawhai, Red-birch (from colour of bark). A handsome tree, eighty to one hundred feet high. Fagus Menziesii, Hook.
[also called large-leaved birch]. Tawhai, Tawhairaunui, Black-birch of Auckland and Otago (from colour of bark), Fagus fusca, Hook."
It is profusely covered with a fragrant white blossom.
See Mapau.
1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 108:
"Its floor ... with faint tawhiri leaves besprent "
1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 21:
"The early breeze that ... stole The rich Tawhiri's sweet perfume."
Billy-tea, or Bush-tea. Tea made in a billy (q.v.). There is a belief that in order to bring out the full flavour it should be stirred with a gum-stick.
New Zealand tea. Tea made of the leaves of Manuka (q.v.). See Tea-tree.
See Sarsaparilla.) A plant, Smilax glycyphylla, Smith., N.O. Liliaceae.
1788. D. Considen, letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Nov. 18, in `Historical Records of New South Wales,' vol. i. part ii.
p. 220:
"I have sent you some of the sweet tea of this country, which I recommend, and is generally used by the marines and convicts.
As such it is a good anti-scorbutic, as well as a substitute for that which is more costly."
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 195:
"The sweet-tea, a creeping kind of vine ... the taste is sweet, exactly like the liquorice-root of the shops. Of this the convicts and soldiers make an infusion which is tolerably pleasant, and serves as no bad succedaneum for tea."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 203:
"`Sweet tea' ... The decoction made from its leaves ...
is similar in properties, but more pleasant in taste, than that obtained from the roots of S. officinalis, or Jamaica sarsaparilla. The herb is a common article of trade among Sydney herbalists."
1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' [Notes] p. 505:
"Manuka... . The settlers often call it `tea-broom.'"
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 291:
"Brown returned with ... four teals (Querquedula castanea)." [The old name.]
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 Leptospermum and Melaleuca 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 Tea-tree is 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 was occasionally given, are species of the genera Kunzea and Callistemon.
The spelling Ti-tree is not only erroneous as to the origin of the name, but exceedingly misleading, as it confuses the Australian Tea-tree with another Ti (q.v.) in Polynesia (Cordyline ti). This latter genus is represented, 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 a marked feature of the New Zealand landscape, and are of the lily family (N.O. Liliaceae), while the genera Leptospermum and Melaleuca are of the myrtle family (N.O. Myrtaceae).
As to the species of the Australian Tea-tree, that first used by Cook's sailors was either--Leptospermum scoparium, 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 White Tea-tree, Broad-leaved T.-t., Swamp T.-t., and Paper-bark T.-t.
The name, however, as noted above, is used for all species of 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 Mountain Tea-tree, and Callistemon salignus, De C., is called--
Broad-leaved, or River Tea-tree.
In New Zealand, the Maori name Manuka (q.v.) is more generally used than Tea-tree, and the tree denoted by it is the original one used by Cook's sailors.
Concerning other plants, used in the early days for making special 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 the World' [2nd Voyage], vol. i. p. 99: