476 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART 



high ; at Sceaux, 10 years planted, and 20 ft, high ; in the Toulon Botanic Garden, 20 years planted, 

 and 12 ft. high; at Nerrieres, near Nantes, 20 years planted, and 15 ft. high. In Austria, in the 

 University Botanic Garden at Vienna, 25 years planted, and 25 ft. high. 



Commercial Statistics. Plants, in London, cost from 

 Bollwyller, 1 franc each ; at New York, ?. 



?. to 2s. 6d. each ; at 



App. I. Half-liar dy Ligneous Species of Sapindacece. 



DonoN^ v «, a genus of plants named in honour of Rambrot Dodoens, author of Historia Planta- 

 rum, who died in 1585, consists of nearly 30 species of green-house plants, which are chiefly natives 

 of new Holland, though some of them are from the East and West Indies and South America. 

 They are all shrubs, with exstipulate, simple, or pinnate leaves, and small greenish yellow flowers. 

 They are not showy, but they are interesting to the botanist, as illustrating this order, and also on 

 account of the ramified venation of their leaves. 



* D. viscbsa L.is a native of the Caribbee Islands, where it is"a shrub growing to the height of 6 ft. 

 It has been in the country since 1690, and is occasionally to be Jmet with in green. houses. It is 

 highly probable that it would stand our winters against a wall, with sufficient protection. 



*l D. alternata Cunning, is a native of New Holland, and has been in cultivation since 1824. 



*t T> . jamaicensis Dec, D. angustifblia Swz., D. viscosa Cav., is a native of the colder parts of 

 Jamaica, where it grows to the height of 6 ft. ; and, being very sour and bitterish in all its parts, it 

 is known there by the name of switch sorrel. It has been in our green-houses since 1810. 



St D. salicifclia Dec, D. angustifblia Lam., is in cultivation in French gardens under the name 

 of hois de reinette, and has been in our green-houses since 1820. The leaves are very narrow, 

 and they are sweet-scented. It is supposed to be a native of New Holland. 



m\ B. \aurina Sieb., B. triquetra Bot. Rep. t. 231., D. cuneata Smith, and B. aspleniifdlia Rudge, 

 are all natives of New Holland, occasionally to be met with in green-houses. They are generally 

 cultivated in loam and peat, or in any light soil ; and, when they are tried against a conservative wall, 

 care should be taken that they are not overpowered at the root, or at the top, by other plants. 



CHAP. XXV. 



OF THE HALF-HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER 



MELIA V CE^F,. 



*£ 1. Melia Azedarach L., the bead tree, or Indian lilac, 

 {fig. 138.) is an old inhabitant of British green-houses, 

 and well known to all those who have travelled in Italy. 

 The word Melia is derived from melia, the Greek name 

 for the manna ash (from melt, honey) ; from a fancied 

 resemblance between the leaves and those of the ash: and 

 Azedarach from an Arabic word signifying a poisonous 

 plant; the berries of the melia being formerly supposed 

 to be poisonous. Its foliage and its spikes of flowers are 

 large, the plant being remarkably showy when fully de- 

 veloped; and it is by no means tender. It grows in its 

 native country, Syria, to the height of 40 ft. ; and there 

 are trees of nearly that height in the neighbourhood of 

 Naples. It is planted as an ornamental tree in Spain, 

 Portugal, Italy, and the south of France. There are 

 trees of it in the public walks at Montpelier, at Toulon, 

 and in various cities in Italy. In the southern states of 

 North America, more particularly in Carolina, it is planted 

 near houses, and known there by the name of the pride 

 of India ; a name also given to the Lagerstrce'mm fndica. 

 In Greece, and along the shores of the Grecian Archipelago 

 and the Mediterranean, the JV/elia Azedarach is always 

 planted in the area of monasteries for the sake of the nuts, 

 contained in its fruits, which are made into rosaries by the 

 monks ; and hence its name of the bead tree. The fruit, which is of the size of a cherry, but more 

 cylindrical, and of a pale yellow colour when ripe, was said by the Arabian physician Avicenna to be 

 poisonous ; and the pulp was mixed with grease, for the purpose of killing rats and dogs. According 

 to Boyle, however, the fruit can only be considered poisonous when used in large doses. It is used in 

 Java as a vermifuge. The nuts, which are of a brown colour, are bored, and, as already stated, strung 

 as beads in Catholic countries. In Britain, the tree frequently flowers in green-houses, and sometimes 

 ripens seeds : it has been tried in the open air, both as a standard and against a wall. It has stood 

 through several winters, in the open air, at Biel, in East Lothian ; and at Bungay, in Suffolk, a plant, 

 which had been 9 years planted against a wall, was, in 1834, 9A ft. high, the trunk 9 in. in diameter, 

 and had branches extending 18 ft. on each side of the trunk. One, raised from seed in 1828, which 

 has stood ever since against a wall in our garden at Bayswater, protected by a glass case during 

 winter, flowered in 1835. In the wannest parts of Devonshire and Cornwall, it might be treated as 

 a standard tree. Plants are generally raised from seeds ; and they may be procured in the London 

 nurseries at 2s. each ; at Bollwyller, for 1 franc and 50 cents ; and at New York, for 25 cents a 

 plant, and 1 dollar a quart of seeds. 



% 2. M. semper vnens Swz., the evergreen Melia, or Bead Tree, known in the West Indies by 

 the name of the Indian lilac, is said to be a tree growing to the height of about 25 It. It has been 

 in our green-houscs since 1G5G; and is by 6ome considered as only a variety of M. Axedardch. 



