312 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



ALCE Oil is obtained from Bursera graveolens, and several species 

 of Bursera of Mexico are used as a substitute for Aloe wood. 



j. MELIACE^ OR MAHOGANY FAMILY.— This is a 

 large family of tropical trees and shrubs with mostly alternate, 

 compound and exstipulate leaves, the leaflets being entire, with 

 secretion cells, but not pellucid-punctate (Fig. i6i). The flowers 

 are complete, the filaments being united into a tube ; and they occur 



Fig. i6i. Pride of China (Melia Azedarack): A, flowering branch; B, a part 

 of the inflorescence. — After Harms, 



in axillary clusters or racemes; the fruit is a capsule, berry or 

 drupe; the seeds are sometimes winged and with fleshy or leaf- 

 like cotyledons. 



The bitter principle mangrovin is found in the bark of the 

 China Tree or Pride of China {Melia Asedarach) indigenous to 

 Asia, and extensively cultivated in tropical and warm-temperate 

 regions, and naturalized in the southern part of the United States 

 (Fig. i6i). A similar principle is found in other plants of this 

 family. 



