Melia
(from Melia, the Greek name for the Ash; in allusion to the resemblance in the leaves). Bead-tree. ORD. Meliaceae. A genus comprising about five species of stove, greenhouse, or half-hardy trees, natives of tropical Asia and Australia, one species being widely dispersed by introduction. Flowers white or purple, in large, axillary, much-branched panicles; calyx five or six-parted, imbricated; petals five or six, free, linear-spathulate, spreading. Fruit drupaceous, small. Leaves alternate, pinnate, or bi- or tripinnate; young ones, together with the inflorescence, often stellato-tomentose; leaflets petiolulate, dentate or serrate. Branches covered with scars. The species are of easy culture in a sandy-loam soil. Propagated by cuttings, placed in sand, under a bell glass, in gentle bottom heat. The name Bead-tree has been given to the species of this genus, on account of the use made of the seeds in Catholic countries, "where the nuts are threaded for beads, to assist the devotion of good Catholics, for which purpose they are peculiarly suited, having a natural perforation through the centre; hence the tree has been called Arbor Sancta" ("Botanical Magazine"). M. Azadirachta (Azadirachta). fl. bluish. Summer. l. pinnate; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, unequal at the base, acuminated, dentately-serrated; petioles terete. h. 20ft. East Indies, 1759. Stove. (B. F. S. 14.) M. Azedarach (Azedarach). fl. lilac, fragrant. Summer. l. bipinnate; leaflets deeply serrated, somewhat quinate. h. 40ft. Tropical Asia, &c., 1656. Hardy in the South of England. (B. F. S. 13; B. M. 1066.) M. A. floribunda is more floriferous than the type, and flowers in a smaller state. (R. H. 1872, 470.) M. composita (compound). A synonym of M. dubia.
M. dubia (doubtful). fl. whitish or pinkish; peduncles, calyces, and petals rather velvety. Summer. l. somewhat bipinnate, but at the apices of the petioles they are simply pinnate; leaflets almost entire, lower ones ternate. h. 30ft. Tropical Asia, Australia, and Africa, 1810. Stove. SYN. M. composita. M. japonica (Japanese). fl. lilac, fragrant, in large axillary panicles. Summer. l. large, bipinnate; leaflets few, distant, ovate, crenate. h. 20ft. to 40ft. Japan, 1865. A very ornamental half-hardy tree. M. sempervirens (evergreen). fl. bluish. Summer. l. bipinnate; leaflets deeply toothed, usually seven in number, shining when young. h. 25ft. Jamaica, 1656. Stove. (B. R. 643.)