124 MELIA AZEPARACH. 



by the red-breasts, which, in their annual migrations to Florida and the southern 

 states, often uhit tlicniselvos to such an inordinate degree, that they are sometimee 

 found stuj)ificd l>y its narcotic power. 



Gcorrraplnj and History. The Melia azedarach is supposed to have been 

 originally a native of Persia, where it was known as long ago as the year 980, 

 by Avicoinia, an Arabian physician, who noticed the venomous principle 

 which resides in its fruit; but some botanists are of the opinion that it is ai.so 

 indigenous to Florida and the United States, or at least has become so from 

 habit ; for it is found there, growing wild m the forests, and attains its fullest 

 magnitude. It is propagated for ornament or use, in all the warm countries of 

 the civilized world. It is also cultivated in conservatories in the temperate and 

 colder parts of Europe and America, and even there it often flowers, and ripens 

 its fruit. 



The largest recorded tree of this species in Europe, is in the garden of Count 

 Mellerio, at Brianza, near Milan, in Italy. It attained the height of forty feet in 

 twenty-six years after planting, and flowers and seeds freely every year. The 

 species is planted as an ornamental tree in Spain, Portugal, the south of France, 

 and Italy ; but there are few places in those countries where it attains so large 

 a size as at Brianza. There are trees of it in the public walks at Montpellier, at 

 Toulon, and the various cities of Italy. 



In Greece, and along the shores of the Archipelago and the Mediterranean, 

 the azedarach is always planted in the area of monasteries, for the sake of the 

 nuts contained in the fruit, which are made into rosaries by the monks. 



This species has been found growing in British green-houses since the year 

 1656, where it was introduced under the name of Indian lilac. It has been 

 tried in that country in the open air, both as a standard and against a wall, and 

 has stood through several winters, in the open air, at Biel, in East Lothian. At 

 Bungay, in Suffolk, a plant, which had been nine years planted against a wall, 

 was, in 1834, nine and a half feet high, with a trunk nine inches in diameter, 

 and an ambitus of thirty-six feet. 



In the southern cities of the United States, as well as on plantations, this tree 

 is planted near houses, and is highly esteemed for the beauty of its flowers, the 

 elegance of its foliage, and for the medical uses to which it is applied. 



In the public square in Savannah, there are numerous trees of this species, 

 which have nearly attained their fullest magnitude, after being planted about 

 fifty years. 



Propagation and Culture. The azedarach is propagated from seeds, which 

 should be sown in a similar manner as those of most other kinds of stone fruit. 

 It prospers either in a warm loamy, or a dry sandy soil, and hence is peculiarly 

 adapted for planting Avorn-out and exhausted fields, which have been abandoned 

 in Florida and the southern states. It grows with such rapidity there, that from 

 the seed, it attains a height of twelve or fifteen feet in four or five years. This 

 surprising vegetation is chiefly observed in plants less than ten years of age, in 

 which the concentric circles are more distant than in any other tree. It pos- 

 sesses the valuable property of converting its sap-wood into perfect wood, in the 

 earliest stages of its growth. In a stock six inches in diameter, there is often to 

 be found not more than one inch in thickness of sap. 



Insects, Casualties, 6^c. The only insect recorded as feeding upon this tree in 

 this country, is the yellow-underwing cooper moth or Phalmna amasia, of 

 Abbot, which, in Georgia, spun among the leaves May 2d, and came out the 28th. 

 The common food, however, of the same insect, is the leaves of various kinds of 

 oak. 



At St. Mary's, Georgia, January 7th, 1813, Dr. William Baldwin took from 



