SIMARUBACEAE 67» 



form. Stigmas capitate. Ovules 2, collateral, ascending, campylotropous. 

 Fruit achene-like. Seeds with a horseshoe-shaped embryo and thick incumbent 

 cotyledons. 



1. SURIANA L. 



Characters of the family. 



1. Suriana maritima L. A copiously branched shrub 1-2 m. tall, with softly pubes- 

 cent foliage. Leaves numerous and approximate ; blades linear-spatulate, 1.5-4 cm. long, 

 entire, nerveless : flower-clusters not surpassing the leaves : sepals ovate, 6-8 mm. long, 

 acuminate : petals yellow, broadened upward, about as long as the sepals : fruit 8-10 mm. 

 broad, the achene-like carpels 4-4.5 mm. high, finely pubescent. 



On sandy beaches, Florida. Widely distributed in the tropics. 



Family 10. SIMARUBACEAE DC. Quassia Family. 



Tropical shrubs or trees, or rarely herbs, with a bitter milky sap. Leaves 

 alternate or rarely opposite, without stipules : blades pinnately compound, rarely 

 1-3-foliolate, or simple : leaflets not glandular-punctate. Inflorescence mostly 

 axillary, racemose or paniculate, or rarely spicate. Flowers sometimes solitary, 

 dioecious, polygamous, or rarely perfect, regular. Calyx of 3-5 persistent 

 sepals. Disk annular, cup-like or elongated into a stalk, entire or lobed. 

 Corolla of 3-5 imbricated or valvate deciduous petals, or rarely wanting. 

 Androecium of as many stamens as there are petals, or twice as many, rarely 

 numerous, inserted under the disk. Filaments distinct, naked or each with a 

 scale at the base, sometimes pilose. Anthers introrse. Gynoecium of 2-5^ 

 more or less united carpels. Ovary 2-5-celled, deeply 2-5-lobed, or rarely 1-5- 

 celled and entire. Styles 2-5, more or less united. Ovules usually solitary in 

 each cavity, rarely numerous, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit a drupe or samara. 

 Seed mostly solitary, pendulous, with a membranous testa. Endosperm fleshy, 

 sometimes wanting. 



Leaves with simple blades. 1. Castela. 



Leaves with pinnately-compound blades. 

 Carpels united at the base or by their styles. 



Fruit a drupe. " ^ 2. Simaruba. 



Fruit a samara. 3. Ailanthus. 



Carpels wholly united up to the styles. 4. Picsiamnia. 



1. CASTELA Turpin. 



Low rigid spinescent shrubs, with spreading branches and very bitter bark and wood. 

 Leaves alternate, often clustered : blades leathery, small, simple, entire, revolute. Flowers 

 small, polygamo-dioecious, solitary or clustered. Sepals 4, relatively small. Petals 4, im- 

 bricated in the bud. Stamens 8, represented by staminodia in the pistillate flowers, in- 

 serted below the 8-lobed disk : filaments often pubescent. Ovary 4-lobed, 4-celled, sessile : 

 styles united to the middle, the tips recurved, stigmatic on the inner side. Fruit a cluster 

 of 4, or fewer, fleshy drupes. Stone crustaceous. Endosperm scant. Cotyledons thick. 



1. Castela Nicholsonii Hook. A rigid spinescent shrub 1-2 m. tall, with pale bark 

 and tomentose twigs. Leaf-blades oblong or oblanceolate, 8-20 mm. long, obtuse or apicu- 

 late, revolute, nearly glabrous above, pale-tomentose beneath, nearly sessile, sometimes clus- 

 tered : corolla orange-red : filaments hirsute : drupes flattened, 6-8 mm. long, red, oblique, 

 acute, coarsely reticulated. 



On bluffs along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, Texas and Mexico. Goatbush. 



2. SIMARUBA Aubl. 



Tropical trees, with a resinous sap. Leaves alternate, without stipules : blades leathery, 

 abruptly-pinnate. Leaflets mostly alternate, entire, conduplicate in vernation. Flowers 

 small, monoecious or dioecious, in elongated panicles. Sepals 4-5, imbricated. Disk 

 somewhat cup-shaped, pubescent. Petals 4r-5, imbricated, spreading. Stamens 8-10, in- 

 serted below the disk, reduced to scales in pistillate flowers : filaments filiform, enlarged 

 at the base, inserted on the back of a fringed scale. Ovary sessile in the disk, deeply 4-5- 

 lobed, rudimentary or wanting in the staminate flowers : styles united : stigmas spread- 

 ing or recurved, longer than the style. Drupes solitary, or 5 together, with a thin fleshy 

 pulp and a crustaceous stone. Endosperm wanting. Cotyledons plano-convex. 



