MELIACEAE. 213 



paniculate. Flowers perfect or polygamo-dioecious, regular. Calyx of 

 3-5, distinct or partly united valvate sepals. Corolla of 3-5 distinct or some- 

 what united petals which are sometimes adnate to the stamen-tube. 

 Stamens 8-10, or rarely fewer or more, inserted at the base of the disk; 

 filaments united into a tube; anthers sessile or stalked. Carpels 3-5, 

 united ; ovary 3-5-celled, free ; styles united. Ovules 2-many in each cavity, 

 anatropous. Fruit a berry, capsule or drupe. Seeds sometimes winged; 

 endosperm wanting or fleshy; embryo with leafy cotyledons. About 50 

 genera, including some 700 species, mostly tropical. 



Leaflets membranous, serrate to incised ; fruit a drupe ; seeds wing- 

 less. 1. Helia. 

 Leaflets chartaceous, entire ; fruit a woody capsule ; seeds winged. 2. Swietenia. 



i 



1. MELIA L. Sp. PI. 384. 1753. 



Trees, with alternate, pinnate or pinnately compound leaves, the leaflets 

 stalked and serrate, the showy white to purple flowers numerous, in large 

 axillary panicles. Calyx 5-6-parted, the lobes imbricated. Petals as many as 

 the calyx-lobes, narrowly spatulate, spreading. Stamen-tube nearly cylindric, 

 dilated and cleft above, bearing 10 or 12 erect anthers. Disk annular. Ovary 

 3-6-celled; ovules 2 in each cavity; style slender; stigma 2-6-lobed or capitate. 

 Fruit a small drupe, its stone 1-5-celled, with 1 seed in each cell. [A Greek 

 name of the Ash.] About 25 Asiatic species, the following typical. 



1. Melia Azedarach L. Sp. PL 384. 1753. 

 Melia sempervirens Sw. Prodr. 67. 1788. 



A tree, sometimes 20 m. high, with a trunk up to 2 m. in diameter, usually 

 much smaller, the bark furrowed, the branches spreading. Leaves bipinnate, 

 petioled, glabrous, or nearly so, 2-4 dm. long, deciduous; leaflets numerous, 

 ovate to elliptic, thin, acuminate at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base, 

 3-7 cm. long, sharply serrate and sometimes lobed; panicles peduncled 2-3 dm. 

 long; pedicels slender, 4-10 mm. long; sepals acute, about 2 mm. long; petals 

 purplish, oblong, obtuse, about 10 mm. long; drupes yellow, globose, smooth, 

 1.5-2 cm. in diameter. 



Waste and scrub-lands, spontaneous after cultivation, Eleuthera, Cat Island 

 and Inagua : southeastern United States ; Bermuda ; West Indies ; Mexico and trop- 

 ical America generally ; native of southeastern Asia. PRIDE-OF-INDIA. 



2. SWIETENIA Jacq. Enuxn. 4, 20. 1760. 



Large evergreen trees, with, hard reddish brown wood, and pinnate leaves 

 with opposite acuminate leaflets, the small flowers in terminal and axillary 

 panicles. Calyx 5-cleft, its lobes imbricated. Petals 5, spreading. Filaments 

 united into an urn-shaped, 10-toothecl tube; anthers 10. Disk annular. Ovary 

 ovoid, 5-celled; stigma discoid, 5-rayed; ovules many, pendulous on the axis. 

 Capsule large, woody, 5-celled, septicidally 5-valved. Seeds many, imbricated in 

 2 series. [Named for Gerard von Swieten, 1700-1772.] Three known species, 

 two of tropical and subtropical America, one African, the following typical. 



1. Swietenia Mahagoni Jacq. Enum. 20. 1760. 



A large tree, sometimes 25 m. high with a trunk 4 m. in diameter, buttressed 

 at the base, the reddish bark scaly, the branches spreading, the angular twigs 



