158 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF < [ Sumarubee. 
green parts of B. Sumatrana, naturalised in the Calcutta Garden, being simply and 
intensely bitter, Dr. Roxburgh concludes, that it may be as useful a medicine as Bruce’s 
Abyssinian Wooginos. The bark of the root of Toddalia aculeata is also said by him to be 
employed as a cure for the remittent fevers caught in the Hill jungles. 
51. SIMARUBEZ. 
This order, intermediate between Rutacee and Ochnacee, consisting of but few 
genera and species, is found chiefly in the equinoctial parts both of the Old and df 
the New World. The species of Quassia, Simaruba, and Simaba, are confined to some 
of the West-India islands, Guiana, and Brazil; but Semadera of Gertner; to which 
M. Adrien de Jussieu has referred Vittmannia, Vahl, and Niota, Lam., is found in 
Madagascar and Java, as well as in Ceylon and the southern parts of India; and on the 
Martaban coast, whence Dr.Wallich obtained his Niota lucida. Pl. As. Rar. 2. T. 168. 
In the Himalayas, also, there is a representative of this family in Nima quassioides 
of Dr. Hamilton, referred by Mr. Don to Simaba, but considered by M. Adrien de 
Jussieu as only allied to this family: but from its general appearance, and intensely 
bitter taste of every part, it is too closely allied to be separated, even though the sta- 
mens are pentandrous, as in Simaruba? excelsa; the flowers are moreover polygamous, 
the petals erect and greenish-coloured, with the single ovuled ovaries seated in a gyno- 
base, from the. base of which the stamens arise; style separating at top into five 
stigmas, and towards the base into as many styles, each of which enters the correspond- 
ing ovule, about its middle, while the indihiscent drupes enclose seeds, having a mem- 
branous integument and short radicle retracted between the large fleshy cotyledons. 
It was discovered in Nepal by Dr. Hamilton; I have met with it in Gurhwal in valleys, 
and at moderate elevations within the Himalayas, and have also received it from Turanda, 
on the banks of the Sutlej, which is in more than 31° of N. latitude.) i tix 
The Simarubee are as closely allied in botanical characters, as in the possession 
of a similar intense but pure bitterness, diffused over every part, owing to the presence 
of the bitter principle called guassine. From the similarity in climate and productions 
of the countries where they grow, there is no doubt but that all the Quassias and Sima- 
rubas would succeed well in Bengal. But the light-coloured, pure, bitter wood of the 
Himalayan species, is well calculated alone to supply the place of any of the tribe. 
India would appear to be the Aedyhyama, or central country, botanically, which 
the natives fancy it to be geographically. Thus, we have seen the southern parts 
of India, including, the Peninsula, Bengal, and the forests of Silhet and Chittagong, 
supporting a tropical vegetation, which in many respects approximates to the floras 
of ‘the: other equinoctial parts of Asia, as well as of America; while a strip of tro- 
pical jungle runs up along the southern or plainward base of the Himalayas, nearly 
to the most northern limits of Hindoostan. The Himalayas themselves we have seen 
supporting a.different vegetation at different elevations:—Indian at the base and within 
the 
