M E L 
plants. He defcribes this as a branched Spreading (hrub, 
two cubits high, with foft ovate-lanceolate ferrated leaves, 
and yellow axillary (talked flowers. The calyx is double j 
the outer of three, inner of five, leaves. Stamens five, in- 
ferted into a nectariferous crown, with five intermediate 
linear bodies, exceeding them in length ; ftyle one, with 
five ftigmas ; capfule globofe, of five cells and five valves j 
feeds four in each cell, angular, dotted. The only fpecies 
is M. velutina, defcribed above. 
MELHU'A, or Mell'uah, a town of Syria, in the de¬ 
fect : twenty miles fouth-eaft of Aleppo. 
ME'LIA, /. [a name adopted by Linnaeus for this tree, 
apparently becaufe its leaves refemble thofe of the ajh, 
which is doubtlefs the true p.£?ua of the ancient Greeks.] 
In botany, the Bead-tr.ee ; a genus of the clafs decan- 
dria, order monogynia, natural order of triiiilats;, (meliae, 
Julf.) Generic characters — Calyx perianthium one-leafed, 
very fmall, five-toothed, upright, blunt. Corolla : petals 
five, linear-lanceolate, Spreading, long ; neCtary cylindri¬ 
cal, one-leafed, the length of the corolla, with a ten-tooth¬ 
ed mouth. Stamina: filaments ten, very final!, infected 
within the apex of the neCtary ; antherae not exceeding 
the neCtary, oblong. Piltillum : germ conical; ftyle cy- 
lindric, the length of the neCtary ; ftigma capitate, with 
five converging valves. Pericarpium : drupe globular, 
foft. Seed : nut roundifh, five-grooved, five-celled.— L’f- 
jential Character. Calyx : five-toothed ; petals five ; nec¬ 
tary cylindric, bearing the antherae at its mouth ; drupe 
dvith a five-celled nucleus. There are five lpecies. 
i. Melia Azedarach, common bead-tree, or pride of 
China : leaves bipinnate ; leaflets flat, fhining, with fer¬ 
ruginous dots underneath. This in warm countries grows 
to "a large tree, fpreading out into many branches. Leaf¬ 
lets notched and indented on their edges, deep green 
above, and paler underneath. The flowers come out from 
the fide of the branches in long loofe bunches ; petals 
blue. Fruit oblong, the fize of a fmall cherry, green at 
firft, but when ripe changing to a pale yellow ; nut four 
or five celled, with one oblong feed in each cell. It flowers 
in July, but does not often produce feeds; it drops the 
leaves in autumn, and puts out frefh ones in fpring. The 
pulp furrounding the nut is poifonous; and, mixed with 
reafe, it is faid will kill dogs. The nuts are bored and 
rung for beads by the Roman catholics.. Nati ve of Syria, 
and now common in Spain and Portugal. Cultivated in 
i6 j6, by John Tradefcant, jun. 
a. Melia fempervirens, or evergreen bead-tree-: leaves 
bipinnate leaflets fomewhat wrinkled, commonly (even. 
This, which has been generally regarded as a variety, is 
thought by Swartz to be a diftindl lpecies, differing from 
that in being (mailer, and often flowering for two years 
together; the leaflets, which are bright green, are leldom 
more than feven, wrinkled a little, deeper and more un¬ 
equally ferrate and acuminate. Native of the Eaft Indies. 
Mr. Miller fays, that fome plants have been introduced 
into the Weft Indies, where he is informed they continue 
flowering and fruiting mod part of the year; that lie re¬ 
ceived the fruit by the name of Indian lilac, from which 
he raifed many plants, but found them to be the fame 
with that from Syria. 
y. Melia Azedirachta, or afh-leaved Indian bead-tree : 
leaves pinnate. This becomes a large tree in India. The 
Item is thick, the wood of a pale yellow, and the bark of 
a dark purple colour and very bitter. The branches ex¬ 
tend wide on every fide. The leaves are compofed of five 
or fix pairs of oblongacute-pointed leaflets, terminated by 
an odd one ; they are ferrate, of a light green colour, and 
of a ftrong dilagreeable odour; they (land upon pretty 
long footftalks, oppofite or alternate. The flowers are 
reduced in long branching panicles from the fide of the 
ranches; they are fmall, white, and fit in fmall calyxes, 
cut into five acute fegments. Fruit oval, the fize of fmall 
olives; green, turning yellow, and when ripe changing 
to purple ; the pulp is oily, acrid and bitter ; the nut is 
white, and (haped like that of the former. The number 
y.op. XV.. No. 1023, 
M E L S3 
of grooves and cells varies s Commelin gives only four 
cells; Gasrtner’s fpecimen had fix 5 but the natural num¬ 
ber is five. 
4. Melia dubia: leaves bipinnate ; leaflets broadly-lan- 
ceolate, acute, ferrated, the terminal one larger. Sent by 
Sonnerat to Lamarck from the Eaft Indies. All that we 
know of this fpecies is from Cavanilles, who fays that lie 
faw a Angle fpecimen of it in Lamarck’s Herbarium with¬ 
out any name, but that he eafily difeovered it belonged 
either to Trichilia or Melia ; and that-he referred it to the 
latter genus from its fruit. The flowers refemble thofe of 
M. Azadirachta. 
5. Melia compofita : leaves pinnate ; lower leaflets ter- 
nate, on (talks ; calyx and corolla .downy. Willdenow 
fays, that M. dubia of Cavanilles feems very nearly allied 
to this. The pubefcence of the calyx, and outer fide of 
the petals, feems to be the great mark of diftindtion. The 
fruit is unknown. Native of the Eaft Indies. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants are all capable 
of being increafed by feeds, which in the firft fort are ob¬ 
tained from abroad, and fliould be (own in pots of light 
rich earth in the fpring, plunging them in a hot-bed of 
tanners’ bark or dung, under frames and glafies, giving 
frequent waterings, and frefti air, when the plants are come 
up, being fully expofed in a moderate (hade during the 
fummer, and placed under a frame in the autumn, &c. to 
have the free air all winter in open weather, and be (hel- 
tered from froft. In the following March they ihould be 
planted in feparate fmall pots, plunged in a bark-bed, Sec. 
Though this laft is not ablolutely neceffary, yet when, 
praftiled, it greatly facilitates their rooting and early 
growth. After they have been managed in this way for 
three or four years, and (hifted occalionally into larger 
pots, fome of the ftrongeft and mod woody plants may 
be planted out in the full ground under a warm wall, or 
in a dry (heltered part of the (hrubbery. The proper lea- 
fo n for this work is the firft fortnight in April. And fome 
plants fliould likewile be placed in pots, to have the ma¬ 
nagement of green-houfe exotic plants, left thofe in the 
open ground fliould be deftroyed by the froft during the 
winter feafon. 
The feeds in the fecond and third forts fliould be fown 
in pots, and plunged in the bark-bed, and managed nearly 
as the firft fort; but, as being much more tender, mull be 
always kept in pots, and plunged in the tan-bed in the 
(love during their early growth 5 afterwards, when they 
have acquired confiderable fize and ftrength, they may be 
placed in the open air for a month or two in the heat of 
fummer, but the reft of the year be kept in the hot-lioufe ; 
managing them as other woody exotic (love-plants. It may 
be noticed, that the laft fort is not common in gardens. 
The firft fort is proper for flirubberies and other parts 
in warm fituations, as well as for the green-houfe ; and the 
others for ftove-colledlions, in mixture with the more ten¬ 
der plants. 
MELIANTHUS, f. [Greek.] Honey-flower ; in 
botany, a genus of the clafs didynamia, order angiofper- 
mia, natural order corydaies, (rntacese, Juff.) For'tiie ge¬ 
neric characters, fee the article Botany, vol. iii. p.271. 
and for the parts of fruftification, Plate XII. fig. 20, 1, 2. 
—Efjcntial (J/taraCter. Calyx : five-leaved, the lower leaf 
gibbous; petals five, with the nedtary within the lowed 5 
capfule four-celled. This genus is allied to Tropieolum 
in the cowl of the calyx, and in the fituation of the petals 
andftamens 5 but it more refemblesDidlamnus in the habit, 
fruit, and perifperm ; it however differs very much from 
both. There are three fpecies. 
1, Melianthus major, or great honey-flower: ft;pule$ 
folitary, faftened to the petiole. Root woody, perennial,, 
fpreading. Stems many, woody, four or five feet high, 
herbaceous towards the top. Leaves large, embracing 
the tern at the bafe, where they have a large Angle (lipulc 
faftened on the upper fide pf the footftalk, wi th two ears at 
the bafe, which alfo embrace the ftem : the leaves have 
four or five pairs of very large leaflets, deeply jagged, into 
& acwtp 
