1. properly, The shrub or low tree, the dried leaves of which form the tea of commerce; = TEA sb. 3.
1755. trans. Hist. China, 129. The Tea-tree is of the shrub kind.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 329. Tea tree, Thea.
1771. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 151/2. The Duke of Northumberland has at this time a tea-tree in full flower. It is the first that ever flowered in Europe.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 377. The flowers of the tea-tree are white, and resemble the wild rose.
1888. J. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 97/2. An indigenous tea-tree … is found in Assam.
2. transf. Applied in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand to various shrubs or trees of the myrtle family, chiefly of the genera Leptospermum and Melaleuca, of which the leaves have been used as a substitute for tea.
(Often spelt ti-tree, occasionally ti-tri, as if a native name.) Also with qualifying words denoting different species.
1790. J. White, Voy. N. S. Wales, 229. Tea Tree of New South Wales. Melaleuca? Trinervia.
1802. Barrington, Hist. N. S. Wales, ix. 331. The roof was bark, resembling that of the Tea-tree at Port Jackson.
1858. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., xc. 350. Leptospermum scoparium, or New Zealand Tea-tree…. The leaves of this species were used by Captain Cook’s crew as a substitute for tea.
1866. Treas. Bot., 674. L[eptospermum] lanigerum,… commonly called Tea tree on account of its leaves having been used by the early settlers … as a substitute for tea.
1885. Mrs. Praed, Australia Life, 112. The bottle-brush flowers of the ti-trees.
1891. Coo-ee (ed. Mrs. P. Martin), 282. The brown twisted branches of the ti-trees … shook their scented bottle-brush blossoms in our faces.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Broad-leaved tea-tree, a myrtaceous shrub or tree, Callistemon salignus, of Australia and Tasmania…. Prickly tea-tree, same as naambar [Melaleuca styphelioides, of N. S. Wales]. Red Scrub tea-tree, the Australian Rhodamnia trinervia, a myrtaceous shrub or tree.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 16 Aug., 4/1. A Winter Scene in Australia…. Down by the sea the tea-tree is commencing to weave its veil of flowers.
b. attrib., as tea-tree bark, bush, marsh, scrub.
1820. C. Jeffreys, Van Dieman’s Land, iii. 133. For tea they [the Bush Rangers] drink a decoction of the sassafras and other shrubs, particularly one which they call the tea-tree bush.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 13. Building comfortable huts of tea-tree bark.
1835. J. Batman, in Cornwallis, New World (1859), 1. 406. A dense tea-tree scrub, which we knew to be the surest indication of good water in its neighbourhood.
1883. C. Harpur, Poems, 78. Why roar the bull-frogs in the tea-tree marsh?
3. Applied to various other trees: see TEA sb. 6; in Great Britain esp. to the flowering shrub Lycium barbarum or chinense (N.O. Solanaceæ), a native of China, also called Duke of Argyll’s tea-tree (see quot. 1838). African tea-tree, Lycium afrum; Ceylon tea-tree, etc.: see quots.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 130. The spruce and the tea-trees.
1812. New Bot. Gard., I. 113. Ceanothus Americanus, New Jersey Tea-tree.
1838. Loudon, Trees & Shrubs Gt. Brit., III. 1269. One species, L[ycium] barbarum, is commonly called the Duke of Argyll’s tea tree from the circumstance of a tea plant, (Thea viridis), having been sent to the Duke of Argyll at the same time as this plant, and the labels having been accidentally changed.
1858. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., lxiv. 231. Elæodendron glaucum, a native of Ceylon and Coromandel, has been introduced [into S. Africa] under the name of Ceylon Tea Tree.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Tea-plant, or Tea-tree,… African, Lycium afrum...—, Blue Mountain, or Golden-rod, Solidago odora...—, St. Helena, Beatsonia portulacæfolia...—, Surinam, various species of Lantana.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 24 Feb., 5/1. The plant commonly known as the Duke of Argyll’s tea tree, belonging to the same natural order (Solanaceæ) as the potato and tomato.
