198 THALAMIFLORiE. 



I. SiMARUBA. 



Flowers by abortion monoecious dioecious or poly- 

 gamous. Calyx small, 5-partite. Petals 5, a little 

 larger than the calyx. Stamens 5-10, increased at 

 the base by means of scales. Style partite at the apex. 



Name, from the Indian designation of the tree in Cayenne. 



1. Simaruba excelsa. Lofty Bitter-wood. 



Flowers polygamous pentandrous panicled, stigma 

 3-fid, leaves impari-pinnate, leaflets opposite petiolu- 

 lated. 



Quassia excelsa, Swartz, Fl. Tnd. Occ. 1A2. — Q. polygama, 

 Lindsay, Trans. Soc. Edin. III. 205. — Simaruba excelsa, De 

 Cand. Prod. I. 733. 



HAB. Common on the plains and lower mountains. 



FL. December. 



A tree, 50-60 feet in height, with the branches spi-eading ; 

 the bark rimose, ash-coloured, internally albido-florescent with 

 very tenaceous fibrils. Leaves alternate, impari-pinnate ; leaf- 

 lets opposite, shortly petioluled, oblong, acuminate, unequal at 

 the base, blunt at the apex, venose, glabrous. Racemes towards 

 the ends of the branchlets, axillary, very compound, panicled, 

 subcorymbose, dichotomously branched, spreading, diffuse, many- 

 flowered. Peduncle compressed, rufescenti-puberulous. Flow- 

 ers small, pale, polygamous. Filaments of the male flower 

 much larger than the petals : in the fertile, of the same length. 

 In the male, merely the rudiments of the pistil : in the fertile, 

 ovaries 3: style longer than the stamens, 3-quetrous, 3-fid. 

 Drupes 3, but only one coming to perfection, size of a pea, 

 black, shining, fixed on a hemispherical receptacle : nut solitary, 

 globose, with the shell fragile. 



A lofty spreading tree. It is an excellent timber ; the wood 

 is of a yellow colour, light and not very hard, takes a very fine 

 polish, and is much used in flooring. Bed-posts and clothes- 

 presses have been made of it, as no insect remains near the 

 wood, on account of its bitter quality. It is from it that the 

 Quassia chips of the shops is obtained, and not from the Quas- 

 sia AMARA, which is only a shrub. It is intensely bitter to the 

 taste, and as a medicine, is tonic and stomachic. It has been 

 employed as a substitute for hops in brewing porter ; but the 

 bitter is not so agreeable as that of the hop, and remains longer 

 on the palate. An infusion of the chips is made use of to poi- 

 son flies. 



2. Simaruba officinalis. Officinal Bitter-wood, 

 Flowers dioecious, male decandrous, stigmata 5-par- 



