You failed to do full justice to Melia Azederach, Pride of India; one variety called in ignorance "Umbrella Tree " from its peculiar habit of growth forming a dense round head, flattish underneath, which, viewed at a distance, resembles somewhat an umbrella in shape. This tree here in the South is prized highly for several reasons, partly economic and partly for its beauty. First - It is a beautiful shade tree, furnished in May with myriads of exquisitely fragrant lavender or lilac flowers, which render the air intoxicating in its sweetness. Second - For its valuable wood which works up beautifully as cabinet work or interior wood work to our dwellings. My father's stair-way made of it, with handsomely turned newel post and balustrade, is often mistaken for mahogany, which it closely resembles, only a lighter tint; and, third - for its useful berries, which southern housewives used in ante-bellum days (when we had pork to cure) to throw on the fires built to smoke our meat; wherein the virtue lay "deponent sayeth not," but guess, Yankee like, it must have destroyed the larva; of the skipper.

There are several varieties of this tree. Of the Umbrella variety I have one I am very proud of, planted in my back yard - not flower garden, mark ye. It was obtained from seed of a tree growing on historical ground - Alamo, Texas - endeared to every American heart, but more so to South Carolinians, for there our brave heroes met death as only heroes can, and there their deeds are recorded. "Thermopylae had her messengers of defeat, Alamo had none." Spartansburg, S. C.