172 PRACTICAL FOEESTET. 



alized that some persons suppose it to be indigenous in the 

 Gulf States. This species is 



Melia izedaraeh. — China Tree ; or, Pride of India. — ^Leaves very 

 long, doubly-pinnate, dark green, coming out early in spring. 

 Flowers small, but in large axUlary clusters, deliciously fra- 

 grant. Fruit large as cherries, round, yellow when ripe, eaten 

 with avidity by birds, especially by the robin in its migration 

 southward in the autumn. A handsome, rapid-growing tree, 

 often reaching a hight of forty feet, and a stem eighteen inches 

 in diameter. Wood of a reddish color, resembling some species 

 of the ash, quite durable, and makes excellent fuel. It grows so 

 rapidly that seedlings often reach a hight of ten to fifteen feet 

 in three or four years. It thrives in dry soils, and is planted 

 almost everywhere in the South as a shade tree, and is a univer- 

 sal favorite. Not hardy north of Virginia. A native of Persia, 

 but at what date introduced into this country is not known. 



.MiMTJSOPS, Linn. — Nasebury. 



A small gemis of evergreen trees and shrubs, with milky 

 juice, principally natives of Tropical America, India and New 

 Holland. Fruit of most of the species edible, at least so con- 

 sidered by the people where it is produced. One species indi- 

 genous to the United States, the 



Slimnsops Sicberi, A. DO. — Naseberry. — Leaves rigid, oblong, 

 emarginate at the apex, rather broad or blunt at the base, on 

 stout stems. Flowers small, white, among the clustered leaves 

 on the ends of the branches. Fruit a roundish, many-seeded 

 berry, about the fize of a nutmeg ; edible when fully ripe. A 

 small tree at Key West, Florida, but in Jamaica it reaches a 

 hight of forty to fifty feet, and the wood is considered one of 

 the strongest and best in the island. 



MOEUS, Tour. — Mulberry. 



A genus of only a few species from which a great number of 

 varieties have originated. Flowers monoecious, the sterile and 

 fertile in separate spikes. Fruit edible, usually oblong, some- 

 what resembling in structure and form, the common black- 

 berry. Trees or shrubs with milky juice. We have but one, 

 or at most two, native species. 



Morns rubra, L.— Red Mulberi-y.— Leaves broad, heart-shaped, 

 serrate and rough above, and downy underneath. On young 

 shoots the leaves are variously lobed. Fruit dark red, turning to 



