28 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



ORDER MELIAOEJE. 



Leaves alternate, usually pinnately compound, exstipulate. Flowers mostly regu- 

 lar and perfect; calyx small, the lobes imbricated or rarely valvate in aestivation; 

 petals hypogynous, 3-7, valvate or imbricated in aestivation and free or coherent or 

 adnate to the staminal tube; stamens usually double the number of petals and 

 inserted with them, the filaments joined into a tube (monadephous); pistil with sin- 

 gle style and entire, 2-celled ovary free and sheathed at the bas.e with a more or 

 less developed and free hypogynous disk, each cell containing 1-several ovules. 

 Fruit various, dry or fleshy; seeds usually destitute of albumen. 



Trees and shrubs of hot climates. 



GENUS MELIA, L. 



Leaves bipinnate with toothed leaflets. Flowers in handsome axillary panicles; 

 calyx with 5 small united sepals; petals oblong, spreading; stamen-tube 10-cleft at 

 the apex and furnished with 10 anthers in the throat; pistil with a small hypogynous 

 disk, 5-lobed stigma, columnar and finally deciduous style and 5-celled ovary, each 

 cell containing 2 ovules one above the other. Fruit a drupe with 5-celled bony nut 

 (or fewer-celled by obliteration,) cells 1-seeded. 



Genus represented by trees of few species. (Mdia is from the Greek /neki, honey.) 



105. MELIA AZEDARACH, L. 



PRIDE OF LNTDIA, CHINA BERRY, CHI^A TREE, BEAD TREE. 



Ger., Paternosterbaum, Fr., Azedarach, Sp., Cinamomo. 



Specific Characters. Leaves, deciduous, glabrous, with obliquely lance-ovate acu- 

 minate, serrate leaflets. Flowers, handsome, pleasantly fragrant, and with lilac- 

 colored nearly glabrous petals. Fruit, a subglobose drupe, yellowish when ripe, 

 about t io. diameter, with sweetish and it is said poisonous pulp, and hanging in 

 loose clusters on the otherwise bare tree throughout the winter. 



(The specific name, Azedarach, is from the Persian azad-i-drukht, meaning tree of 

 pre-eminence.) 



A beautiful tree rarely surpassing 40 ft. (12 m.) in height or 2 ft. 

 (0.60 m.) in diameter of trunk, and when growing alone where it can dis- 

 play its natural habit of growth, sends out its branches in a manner very 

 much suggesting the rays of an umbrella. The bark of trunk is of a 

 reddish-gray color, separating tardily with age in fibrous closely adhering 

 ridges. It is a striking tree at all seasons, from its peculiar form of 

 growth, handsome foliage, lilac-like inflorescence, and in winter its ample 

 bunches of whitish berries. 



HABITAT. The native country of this tree is said to be Persia, whence 

 it has been introduced extensively as an ornamental tree throughout 

 southern Europe, etc. In the Southern States of America it has in locali- 

 ties long been thoroughly naturalized, and may be found now in aban- 

 doned fields forming groves of natural growth. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood of medium hardness and strength, 

 coarse-grained and with annual rings marked by many large open ducts. 

 It is of a rich mottled bay color, with light yellowish green sap-wood 

 occupying but one or two rings. 



