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No. 92. 
Melia Azedarack, L , var. australasiea,C. DC. 
The White Cedar. 
(Family MELIACE^E.) 
Botanical description.— Genus, Melia, L. 
Calyx. —5- or 6-cleft. 
Petals. —5 or 6, linear-spathulate, spreading. 
Staminal tube. —10- or 12-toothed ; anthers 10 or 12, within the summit. 
Disc. —-Annular. 
Ovary. —3- to 6-celled; style slender, with a capitate lobed stigma; ovules 2 in each cell, superposed. 
Drupe. —Succulent, with a bony 1- to 5-celled putamen. 
Seeds. —Solitary in each cell ; testa crustaceous ; albumen fleshy, sometimes scanty or none, 
cotyledons leaf-like. Trees. 
Leaves. —Usually twice or thrice pinnate, with petiolulate toothed leaflets. 
Flowers. —Paniculate. 
Botanical description.— Species, Azedarach, L., Sp . PI. 384 (1753). 
An elegant tree, the young leaves, shoots, and inflorescence sprinkled with a mealy stellate 
tomentum which disappears with age. 
Leaves.— Twice or rarely thrice pinnate ; leaflets petiolulate, opposite, with a terminal odd one, ovate 
to almost lanceolate, acuminate, 1 to 2 inches long, entire, coarsely toothed or sometimes 
lobed. 
Panicles. —Loose, shorter than the leaves, retaining the mealy tomentum late, especially on the 
calyx and petals. 
Sepals. —Small, ovate. 
Petals. —4 to 5 lines long. 
Staminal tube. —Hirsute inside behind the anthers, the teeth alternately entire and 2-cleft; 
anthers glabrous or slightly hirsute. 
Cvary. —5-celled. 
Drupe. —Ovoid, J to \ inch long. (B.F1. i, 380). 
Bentliam ( loc. oil.) proceeds to say :— 
The Australian tree appears to me identical with the AT. compasiia of East India and the 
Archipelago, and scarcely differs from the more common M. Azeclarach, except in the more abundant 
mealy tomentum, especially on the inflorescence and flowers. The drupe is also usually larger anti more 
ovoid. 
Casimir de Candolle, in his Monograph of the Mel i ace re, Prodromu9 Supple¬ 
ment (Suites an Prodromus, i, 452), names our form auslralasica, defining it in 
the following words : — 
auslralas ca ; partibus junioribus farinosorufeseentibus, piruuilis obtuse Serratis integrisve; 
panicuhe folium dimidium circitcr arrjuantis ramis plerumque oppositis, verticillatisve; tubo stainineo 
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