Meliaceæ. Genus MELIA, Linn. Decandria Monogynia. Derivation. The word Melia is derived from the Greek meli, honey, and is the name in that language for the manna ash, which one species of this genus is thought to resemble. Generic Characters. Calyx small; sepals 5, united below. Petals oblong, spreading. Stamen-tube 10cleft at the apex, with 10 anthers in the throat; the segments 2-3-parted. Ovary seated on a short disk, 5-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell, one above the other. Style columnar, breaking off from the top of the ovary. Stigma 5-lobed. Drupe ovate, with a 5-celled bony nut; cells 1-seeded. Embryo enclosed within a thin, fleshy albumen. Cotyledons foliaceous. Trees, with bipinnate leaves. Leaflets toothed. Flowers in axillary panicles.-Torrey and Gray, Flora. HE species of the genus Melia are few, and mostly natives of Persia, India, and Japan. The half-hardy kinds are all deciduous trees, without visible buds, and appear to be peculiarly eligible for growing in the southern states of Europe and America, or for training against conservatory walls in the more northern parts of these countries. The species most worthy of culture, besides the Azedarach, are the Melia australis, a native of New Holland, and is said to grow to the height of twenty feet; the Melia japonica, indigenous to Japan, and growing to the height of thirty feet; and the Melia buckayun, of Nepal. A tree described by some, under the name of Melia sempervirens, or Ever-green Melia, and known in the West Indies by the name of Indian Lilac, is said to grow sometimes to a height of twenty or thirty feet; but others consider it as only a variety of the Melia azedarach. Derivations. The specific name is derived from the Persian, azad-i-durukht, which signifies the tree of pre-eminence. The German name signifies Paternoster-tree, in allusion to the nuts of this tree being used for rosaries. The Spanish name, Arbol de Paraiso, signifies tree of Paradise. Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pl. 102; Audubon, Birds of America, pl. lxiii.; Loudon, Arboretum Britan. nicum, i. figure 138; and the figures below. Specific Characters. Leaves deciduous; leaflets about 5-together, glabrous, obliquely ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; petals (lilac) nearly glabrous.-Torrey and Gray, Flora. Description. HE Melia azedarach, in with a trunk fifteen or twenty inches in diam- + the shoots, and exhale a delicious odour. The fruit is round, or oblong, of a yellowish colour when ripe, and about the size of a common cherry. The nut, or kernel of the fruit, is of a brownish colour, and is surrounded by a sweetish pulp, which is sought after with avidity by some species of birds, particularly by the red-breasts, which, in their annual migrations to Florida and the southern states, often glut themselves to such an inordinate degree, that they are sometimes found stupified by its narcotic power. Geography and History. The Melia azedarach is supposed to have been originally a native of Persia, where it was known as long ago as the year 980, by Avicenna, an Arabian physician, who noticed the venomous principle which resides in its fruit; but some botanists are of the opinion that it is also indigenous to Florida and the United States, or at least has become so from habit; for it is found there, growing wild in the forests, and attains its fullest magnitude. It is propagated for ornament or use, in all the warm countries of the civilized world. It is also cultivated in conservatories in the temperate and colder parts of Europe and America, and even there it often flowers, and ripens its fruit. The largest recorded tree of this species in Europe, is in the garden of Count Mellerio, at Brianza, near Milan, in Italy. It attained the height of forty feet in twenty-six years after planting, and flowers and seeds freely every year. The species is planted as an ornamental tree in Spain, Portugal, the south of France, and Italy; but there are few places in those countries where it attains so large a size as at Brianza. There are trees of it in the public walks at Montpellier, at Toulon, and the various cities of Italy. In Greece, and along the shores of the Archipelago and the Mediterranean, the azedarach is always planted in the area of monasteries, for the sake of the nuts contained in the fruit, which are made into rosaries by the monks. This species has been found growing in British green-houses since the year 1656, where it was introduced under the name of Indian lilac. It has been tried in that country in the open air, both as a standard and against a wall, and has stood through several winters, in the open air, at Biel, in East Lothian. At Bungay, in Suffolk, a plant, which had been nine years planted against a wall, was, in 1834, nine and a half feet high, with a trunk nine inches in diameter, and an ambitus of thirty-six feet. In the southern cities of the United States, as well as on plantations, this tree is planted near houses, and is highly esteemed for the beauty of its flowers, the elegance of its foliage, and for the medical uses to which it is applied. In the public square in Savannah, there are numerous trees of this species, which have nearly attained their fullest magnitude, after being planted about fifty years. Propagation and Culture. The azedarach is propagated from seeds, which should be sown in a similar manner as those of most other kinds of stone fruit. It prospers either in a warm loamy, or a dry sandy soil, and hence is peculiarly adapted for planting worn-out and exhausted fields, which have been abandoned in Florida and the southern states. It grows with such rapidity there, that from the seed, it attains a height of twelve or fifteen feet in four or five years. This surprising vegetation is chiefly observed in plants less than ten years of age, in which the concentric circles are more distant than in any other tree. It possesses the valuable property of converting its sap-wood into perfect wood, in the earliest stages of its growth. In a stock six inches in diameter, there is often to be found not more than one inch in thickness of sap. Insects, Casualties, &c. The only insect recorded as feeding upon this tree in this country, is the yellow-underwing cooper moth or Phalana amasia, of Abbot, which, in Georgia, spun among the leaves May 2d, and came out the 28th. The common food, however, of the same insect, is the leaves of various kinds of oak. At St. Mary's, Georgia, January 7th, 1813, Dr. William Baldwin took from the Melia azedarach, a specimen of Epidendrum magnolia, where it had been planted the spring before. What was remarkable, it had continued to flower all the winter on the azedarach, while in the woods no flowers were to be found! Properties and Uses. The wood of the azedarach is of a reddish colour, and is organized in the distribution of its fibres similar to those of the ash. It is sufficiently strong and durable to be employed in civil architecture, and is adapted to various uses in the mechanic arts. It has already been employed for pulleys, which in Europe are usually made of elm, and in America of ash. It is said to make good fuel. The fleshy part of the fruit, like that of the olive, yields a fixed oil, which is bitter, and is considered as anthelmintic, and a narcotic stimulant. The leaves are universally used in India for poultices, and both the flowers and seeds are stimulant. The berries, though said by the Arabian physician, Avicenna, to be poisonous, and the pulp of which was mixed with grease, for the purpose of killing rats and dogs, are often eaten by children in the south, without injurious effects. According to Mr. Royle, however, the fruit is considered as poisonous when used in large doses. The bark of the root, when green, has a bitter, nauseous taste, yielding its virtues to boiling water, and may be employed as a cathartic or emetic, and is considered as an efficient vermifuge, and also may be used with advantage in intermittents. In Persia, an ointment is made, for the cure of some cutaneous eruptions, by mulling the leaves with lard. It is also said that a kind of toddy is obtained by fermenting the sap of young and vigorous trees. The nuts are often bored, as before stated, by monks, and strung into beads. Hence the names of Bead-tree, and Paternostri di San Domenico. Derivation. This genus was named in honour of the illustrious Gerard L. B. Van Swieten, a celebrated naturalist and physi cian of the last century. Generic Characters. Calyx short, obtusely 5-cleft. Petals 5, reflexed. Filaments 10, united into a subcampanulate, 10-toothed tube; anthers included in the tube, alternate with the teeth, attached by the middle, apiculate. Style short; stigma discoid, 5-radiate. Ovary ovoid, surrounded at the base by an annular disk, 5-celled, with about 12 ovules in each cell. Capsule ovoid, 5-celled, dehiscing from the base upward, with 5 septifragal valves; the very thick and woody sarcocarp at length separable from the endocarp; the axis large, persistent, 5-angled above, 5-winged below, with the dissepiments. Seeds suspended from the summit of the axis, about 12 in each cell, imbricated in two rows, rather flat; the thickened and spongy integument expanded above into an oblong wing, which is traversed by the filiform funiculus. Embryo transverse; radicle very short, looking towards the side of the cell. Cotyledons conferruminate and confounded with the fleshy albumen. Leaves abruptly pinnate; leaflets small, somewhat inequilateral. Panicles axillary, or somewhat terminal, loosely flowered.-Torrey and Gray, from Ad. Jussieu. HE genus Swietenia of Linnæus has been subdivided by modern botanists, and at present, comprises but one species. The Swietenia febrifuga has been formed into the Soymida; Swietenia senegalensis, or African mahogany of Sierra Leone, has been changed into Khaya; Swietenia chloroxylon, or East India satinwood, has been formed into Chloroxylon swietenia; and the Swietenia chikrassia, a light-coloured, compact East India wood, has been changed into Chikrassia tabularis. |