XL, Lj 
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XJ 
bunches • they are compofed of five long, narrow, 
fpear-fhaped petals, of a blue colour, and are fuc- 
ceeded by oblong fruit as large as a fmall Cherry, 
green at firft, but when ripe changes to a pale yellow, 
inclofing a nut with five deep furrows, having four or 
five cells, in each of which is lodged one oblong 
feed. This produces its flowers in England in July, 
but are not often fucceeded by feeds here-, it drops 
its leaves in the autumn, and puts out frefli in the 
fpring. The pulp which furrounds the nut, is faid 
to have a deadly quality if eaten and if mixed with 
greafe, and given to dogs, it will kill them. The nuts 
are bored through, and ftrung by the Roman Catho- 
lics to ferve as beads. 
There has been of late years fome of thefe plants in- 
troduced to the i (lands in the Weft-Indies, where I 
informed they continue flowering, and produce 
their fruit moft part of the year. The fruit I have 
received from thence by the title of Indian Lilac, 
from which I have railed many of the plants, and find 
them to be the fame as that from Syria. 
This fort is propagated by feeds (which may be ob- 
tained from Italy or Spain, where thefe trees annually 
produce ripe fruits in the gardens where they are 
planted :) the feeds or berries fhould be fown in pots 
filled with good frefh light earth, and plunged into a 
moderate hot-bed of tanners bark, where (if the feeds 
are frefh) they will come up in about a month or five 
weeks time. When the plants are come up they fhould 
be frequently watered, and fhould have a large 
fhare of free air, by raifing the glafles every day -, in 
June they fhould be expofed to the open air, in a well 
Iheltered fituation, that they may be hardened before 
winter. In October the pots fhould befemoved un- 
der a hot-bed frame, where they may enjoy free open 
air when the weather is mild, and be covered in hard 
froft. During the winter feafon they muft be refrefh- 
ed gently with water, but by no means repeat this 
too often, nor give them too much at a time ; for 
their leaves being off, they will not be in a condition 
to throw off a fuperfluity of moifture. 
In March following, you may fhake out the plants 
from the feed-pots and divide them, planting each 
into a feparate fmall pot, filled with light frefh earth, 
plunging them into a moderate hot-bed, which will 
greatly promote their rooting, and increafe their 
growth, but they muft not be drawn too much ; and 
in June you fhould remove them out into the open 
air as before, and during the three or four winters, 
while the plants are young, you muft fhelter them, 
to fecure them from the cold ; but when the plants 
are grown pretty large and woody, they will endure 
to be planted in the open air againft a fouth wall. 
The belt feafon for this is in April, at which time 
you fhould fhake them out of the pots, being careful 
not to break the earth from the roots, but only pare 
off with a knife the outfide of the ball of earth ; then 
open your holes and put in the plants, doling the 
earth to their roots, obferving if the weather is dry, to 
give them fome water, which fhould be repeated twice 
a week until the plants have taken root-, but you muft 
obferve to plant them on a dry foil, otherwife they 
will be liable to mifcary in fevere frofty weather. 
The fecond fort grows naturally in India, where it 
becomes a large tree ; the ftem is thick, the wood of 
a pale yellow, and the bark of a dark purple colour 
and very bitter. The branches extend wide on every 
fide, which are garnilhed with winged leaves, com- 
pofed of five or fix pair of oblong acute-pointed 
lobes, terminated by an odd one ; thefe are fawed on 
their edges, of a light green colour, and a ftrong 
difagreeable odour ; they Hand upon pretty long foot- 
ftalks, which come out fometimes oppofite, and at 
others they are alternate. The flowers are produced 
in long branching panicles which proceed from the 
fide of the branches ; they are fmall, white, and fit 
in fmall empalements, which are cut in five acute 
fegments j thefe are fucceeded by oval fruit of the 
fize of fmall Olives, which are green, afterward yel- 
low, and when ripe, they change to a purple colour ; 
the pulp which furrounds the nut is oily, acrid, and 
bitter; the nut is white, and fhaped like that of the 
former. It grows in Andy land, "both in India and 
the Hand of Ceylon, where it is always green; and 
produces flowers and fruit twice a yean 
This fort is now very rare in England, and alfo in the 
Dutch gardens, where fome years paft it was more 
common ; it is propagated by feeds in the fame way 
as the other fort, but being much tenderer, the 
plants fhould be kept conftantly in the tan-bed while 
young. In the iummer they may be placed under a 
frame, but in winter they muft be removed into the 
bark-ftove, and treated in the fame way with other 
plants from the fame countries. When the plants 
have obtained ftrengtli, they may be treated more 
hardily, by placing them in winter in a dry ftove; and 
in the middle of fummer they may be placed abroad 
ror two or three months in a warm flickered fituation, 
but they fhould not remain too long abroad ; and 
during the winter feafon they fhould be fparingly wa- 
tered : with this management the plants will produce 
flowers annually, and as they retain their leaves all 
the year, they are ornamental in winter in the ftove. 
The firft fort is commonly called, Zizyphus alba, in 
Portugal and Spain, and in Italy, Pieudocycamo- 
rus. It was by moft of the modem botanifts titled, 
Azederach, but Dr. Linnaeus has altered it to this of 
Melia, which was by Theophraftus applied to a fpe- 
cies of Afh. 
MELIANTHUS. Tourn. Inft. R. H. 430. tab. 
245. Lin. Gen. Plant, y 12 - [^sAjW)©^, of 
honey, and cb/8©- 5 , a flower.] Honey Flower. 
The Characters are, 
The flower has a large , coloured , unequal empalement , di- 
vided into five fegments -, the two upper are oblong and 
ere hi, the lower is floor t , and floaped like a bag. The 
middle are fpear-Jhaped and oppofite. It hath four nar- 
row fpear -fhaped petals , reflexed at their points, spreading 
open outward , and floaped like the empalement into two 
lips, connected on their fides. It has a nebiarium of one 
leaf , fituated in the lower fegment of the empalement , and 
faftened with it to the receptacle ; it is floort, compreffed 
on the fides , and cut on the margin. It hath four erect 
awl-Jhaped ftamina, the two under being fomewhat floor ter 
than the other, terminated by oblong heart -floaped fum- 
mits. In the center is fituated a four-cornered germen, 
fupporting an ere It fly le, crowned by a quadrifid ftigma. 
The germen afterward becomes a quadrangular capfuls 
with dift ended cells , divided by partitions in the center , 
each containing one almoft globular feed, fixed to the center 
of the capfule. 
1. 
I his genus of plants is ranged in the fecond febfciori of 
Linnaeus’s fourteenth clafs, which includes thofe plants 
whofe flowers have two long and two fhorter ftamina, 
and their feeds are included in empalemnets. 
The Species are, 
Melianthus {Major) ftipulis folitariis petiolo adna- 
tis. Hort. Cliff. 452. Honey Flower with fingle ftipula? 
growing clofle to the foot-ftalk. Melianthus Africanus. 
H. L. B. 4 1 4. Greater African Honey Flower. 
2. Melianthus {Minor) ftipulis geminis diftinbBs. 
Hort. Cliff. 492. Smaller Honey Flower with two 
diflinbi ftipuhe. Melianthus. Africanus minor foetidus.- 
Com. Rar. PI. 4. tab. 4. 
The firft fort grows naturally at the Cape of Good 
Hope, from whence it was brought to Holland in the 
year 1672 ; this hath a ligneous perennial root, which 
lpreads far on every fide, from which arife many lig- 
neous ftalks which rife four or five feet high, and are 
herbaceous toward the top, where they are garnifhed 
with large winged leaves, which embrace the ftalks 
with their bale, where they have a large fingle ftipulte 
faftened on the upper fide of the foot-ftalk, with two 
ears at the bafe, which alfo embrace the ftalk. The 
leaves have four or five pair of very large lobes, ter- 
minated by an odd one ; thefe are deeply jagged on 
their edges into acute fegments, and between the 
lobes runs a double leafy border or wing on the up- 
per fide of the midrib, fo as to conned! the bafe of 
the lobes together ; thefe are alfo deeply jagged in 
8 T 
