MELIACEAE. 



205 



1. Melia Azedarach L. PRIDE OF 

 INDIA.. CHINA TREE. (Fig. 225.) A 

 large ornamental tree, reaching a height 

 of 45 and sometimes with a trunk 

 diameter of nearly 6, its branches 

 spreading. Bark furrowed; leaves 

 twice compound, l-3 long, petioled; 

 leaflets numerous, the blades ovate, 

 ' oval or elliptic, l'-3' long, acute or 

 short-acuminate, incised-serrate or 

 lobed, acute or subcordate at the base; 

 panicles long, open, about as long as 

 the peduncles; pedicels 2"-5" long; 

 sepals elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute ; petals purplish, narrowly oblong 

 or oblanceolate, about 5" long, obtuse, 

 spreading; drupes subglobose, 7 "-10" 

 in diameter, yellow, smooth; seeds 

 lobed, very rough, wingless. 



Common along roads and on hillsides. 

 Naturalized. Native of Asia. Widely naturalized in the southern United States 

 and the West Indies. Flowers in spring and summer. The tree loses its leaves for 

 some weeks during the winter ; though some individuals remain leafy much longer 

 than others. It is recorded as introduced into Bermuda about 1780. 



Swietenia Mahagoni L., MAHOGANY, Floridian and West Indian, is a 

 large evergreen tree with bark separating in large thin scales, its pinnate 

 leaves composed of from 4 to 8 ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, inequi- 

 lateral leathery leaflets; the small flowers are panicled; the fruit is a large 

 woody capsule, 5-valved from the base, with a woody axis. A few fine trees 

 exist in Bermuda, the old one at the Flatt's being one of the most elegant 

 individuals to be seen anywhere. 



Swietenia macrophylla King, BROAD-LEAVED MAHOGANY, of Honduras, 

 recently introduced, has much larger leaves, the leaflets up to 6' long, rather 

 thin, long-pointed; no trees have flowered as yet in Bermuda. In Porto Kico 

 it is of more rapid growth than the true Mahogany. 



Cedrela odorata L., SPANISH CEDAR, West Indian, a tall tree, with nearly 

 smooth bark, pinnate leaves with 10-20 pairs of oblong-lanceolate entire 

 acuminate short-stalked leaflets 5'-7' long, the small, yellowish flowers in 

 large terminal panicles, the woody capsules splitting from the top, has been 

 planted for shade and ornament. An elegant tree, about 40 high, in the 

 Public Garden, St. George's, had not flowered up to the spring of 1914. 



Family 12. EUPHORBIACEAE J. St. Hil. 



SPURGE FAMILY. 



Monoecious or dioecious herbs, shrubs or trees, with acrid often milky 

 sap. Leaves opposite, alternate or verticillate. Flowers sometimes much 

 reduced and subtended by an involucre which somewhat resembles a 

 calyx, the number of parts in the floral whorls often different in the stam- 

 inate and pistillate flowers. Ovary usually 3-celled; ovules 1 or 2 in each 

 cavity, pendulous; styles mostly 3, simple, divided, or many-cleft. Fruit 

 a mostly 3-lobed capsule, separating, often elastically, into 3 2-valved 



