42 DICTIONARY OF POPULAR NAMES BEAD 



plants were introduced to Kew. A fragrant gum exudes from 

 the stems, especially when wounded, which in burning emits a 

 smell resembling that of myrrh. 



Bead Trees {Melia Azedarach), the type of the Bead Tree 

 family (Meliacese). It is considered to be a native of India, but 

 it is more probable that it has migrated westward from China. 

 It appears to have early become domesticated throughout 

 Western Asia, Egypt, and the countries on both sides of the 

 Mediterranean, also throughout the West Indies, South America, 

 and the United States, where it is called the Pride of India. 

 In the South of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece it is 

 planted as an avenue tree. It attains the height of 40 to 50 

 feet, and has a dense head of branches terminated by compound 

 winged finely-cut leaves ; the flowers are in terminal loose spikes 

 of a lidit-blue colour, havino- some resemblance to those of 

 the common lilac. The fruit is about the size of a cherry, 

 but more oblong, of a yellowish colour. It is pulpy, enclosing 

 a hard nut, which is of a brown colour. These are bored and 

 strung as beads and used as necklaces and rosaries, hence the 

 name Bead Tree. There appear to be different opinions as 

 to the value or otherwise of the pulp of the berry. Some 

 writers assert that it is wholesome, and others that it is poisonous. 

 In this country the tree is nearly hardy, plants having flowered 

 in the open air at Kew. Other hard seeds are also used for 

 rosaries and necklaces, one especially called the Necklace Tree, 

 is Ormosia dasycmya, a tree of the Bean family (Leguminosae), 

 native of the West Indies. The seeds of this, as also of 0. coc- 

 cinea, native of Guiana and Brazil, are slightly flat, oblong, of 

 the size of peas, smooth, polished, and of a red colour, with a 

 black spot at one end. 2. Ahrus jprecatorius, a slender twining, 

 wing-leaved shrub of the Bean family (Leguminosae), originally 

 a native of the East Indies, but early introduced into the West 

 Indies, where it soon became naturalised, as it has in many 

 tropical countries. Its seeds are like small peas, red, with a 

 black spot. They are vulgarly called Crab's eyes. 3. Leuccena 

 glaum, a tree of the Mimosa section of the Bean family (Legu- 



