308 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 



MELIA AZEDARACH, L. is also common and often 

 cultivated in India. It differs from the Neem in 

 having bi- or even tri -pinnate leaves with irregularly 

 toothed leaflets, in the lilac coloured and very fragrant 

 flowers, and in the fruit which contains, as in most 

 MELIACE^E, one stone with as many as five cells and 

 five seeds. The seeds are used to make rosaries. 



CHARACTERS OF THE MELIACE^E 



This family consists mostly of trees. The leaves 

 are alternate, exstipulate, usually pinnate, the leaflets 

 more or less oblique at the base. 



The flowers regular in large axillary panicles. Sepals 

 and petals free or connate, stamens in the form of a 

 tube, on the inside of which are the anthers. 



Ovary surrounded by a disc, generally five-celled, 

 with a single style and capitate stigma. 



Fruit a capsule or drupe, berry, or capsule. Seeds 

 in the latter case often winged (fig. 57, p. 256). 



It includes several valuable timber trees, such as 

 CHLOROXYLON SWIETENIA, D.C., the Satin wood tree,. 

 CEDRELA TOONA, Roxb., the Toon tree, SWIETENIA 

 MAHOGANI, Jacq., the Mahogany of Central America* 



WALSURA PISCIDIA, Roxb., has an ash-coloured 

 deeply cracked bark, which is used in some parts for 

 poisoning fish, for food. 



RHAMNE^E 



Examples : 



ZIZYPHUS JUJUBA, Lamk. the common Lotus tree, 

 which grows wild and cultivated all over India. 



