172 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



alized that some persons suppose it to be indigenous in the 

 Gulf States. This species is 



Melia Azedaracli. — China Tree ; or, Pride of India. — Leaves very- 

 long, doubly-pinnate, dark gi'een, coming out early in spring. 

 Flowers small, but in large axillary clusters, deliciously fra- 

 grant. Fruit large as cherries, round, yellow when ripe, eaten 

 with avidity by birds, especially by the robin in its migration 

 southward in the autumn. A handsome, rapid-gi'owing tree, 

 often reaching a bight of forty feet, and a stem eighteen inches 

 in diameter. Wood of a reddish color, resembling some species 

 of the ash, quite durable, and makes excellent fuel. It grows so 

 rapidly that seedlings often reach a hight of ten to fifteen feet 

 in three or four years. It thrives in diy soils, and is planted 

 almost every^vhere in the South as a shade tree, and is a univer- 

 sal favorite. Not hardy^ north of Virginia. A native of Persia, 

 but at what date introduced into this country is not known. 



MIMUSOPS, Linn. — Xasehury. 



A small genus of evergreen trees and shrubs, with milky 

 juice, principally natives of Tropical America, India and New 

 HoUand. Fruit of most of the species edible, at least so con- 

 sidered by the people where it is produced. One species indi- 

 genous to the United States, the 



Mininsops Sieberl, A. DC. — Naseberiy. — Leaves rigid, oblong, 

 emarginate at the apex, rather broad or blunt at the base, on 

 stout stems. Flowers small, white, among the clustered leaves 

 on the ends of the branches. Fruit a roundish, many -seeded 

 berry, about the eize of a nutmeg ; edible when fully ripe. A 

 small tree at Key West, Florida, but in Jamaica it reaches a 

 hight of forty to fifty feet, and the wood is considered one of 

 the strongest and best in the island. 



MORus, Tour. — Mulbemj. 



A genus of only a few species from which a great number of 

 varieties have originated. Flowers monoecious, the sterile and 

 fei-tile in separate spikes. Fruit edible, usually oblong, some- 

 what resembling in structure and form, the common black- 

 berry. Trees or shrubs with milky juice. We have but one, 

 or at most two, native species. 



Morns rubra, L, — Red Mulberry, — Leaves broad, heart-shaped, 

 serrate and rough above, and downy luiderneath. On young 

 shoots the leaves are variously lobed, Fi-uit dark red, turning to 



