SIMARUBEA. 29 
SIMARUBE A. 
RICHARD. 
QUASSIAD S. 
SmrarvuBacE£.—Lindley. : | 
EssentTiaAL Cuar.—Flowers hermaphrodite, or by abortion unisexual. Calyx four or five-partite, persistent, 
imbricate in estivation. Petals equal in number to, alternate with, but longer than the divisions of the calyx; #stivation 
twisted, deciduous. Stamens equal in number, or twice as many as the petals, inserted on a hypogynous disk, free. 
Ovary, with lobes as numerous as the petals; style one, filiform, enlarged at base. Carpels as many as the petals, 
articulated on the axis, capsular, bivalved, dehiscing inwardly, monospermous. Seeds exalbuminous, pendulous ; 
cotyledons two, thick; radicle short, superior. Trees or shrubs, leaves alternate, pinnate, without stipules. (De 
Candolle. | 
Thi i a small family, and a remarkable analogy exists throughout all the members of it. A principle, bitter and 
tonic, has been detected in them, upon which their medical properties depend; it is the same in all, and has, from the 
generic name Quassia, been called Quassin. A milky juice is said to exude from the bark. They are tropical 
plants, and are found both in the eastern and western hemispheres. 
QUASSIA AMARA. 
“LINNAEUS. 
Sex. Syst.—Decandria, Monogynia. 3 
Gen. Cuar.—Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyz short, persistent, prominent, with five deep divisions. Petals five,” 
much longer, arranged in a tubular form, twisted in estivation. Stamens ten, long, exserted, provided at base with a 
hairy scale. Ovaries five, placed on a broad receptacle. Styles five-partite below, but united into a long exserted one, 
with a five-furrowed stigma. Fruit drupaceous. 
tee 0% Cuar.—A small tree from six to ten feet high, straight, irregularly-branched, with an ash-coloured, smooth 
vark. The leaves are Sparse, occupying, generally, the summit of the branches, very smooth, pinnate ; Jeaflets sessile, 
im pairs, usually two with an odd one, entire, elliptical, acute, reticulated, a little revolute on the margin, of a deep 
ayer a reddening of the veins above, and lighter beneath ; petiole winged, with the joints cuneate. Racemes 
pr e, terminal. Flowers large, scarlet, with short pedicels and a recurved bract at base. The fruit is black 
| This plant is a native of Surinam, Guiana, and other parts of South America. It is cultivated in the West 
snd eta a. the virtues of this plant are by some authorities attributed to Mr. Rolander, by others to 
ten ee ut the year 1756, the first-named gentleman, a distinguished Swedish naturalist and traveller, 
econ ie cea a and placed his specimens at the disposal of Linnzus ; he had discovered that the wood, generally 
a @ "i oyed in the treatment of the fevers of the country as a secret remedy. A negro by the name of 
Quassi € Knowledge of the article, and Linneus accordingly gave to the plant its generic name. The Quassia- 
wood of commerce howev 
5 ? er, has not bee obtai i i i 
consid 1, i : ‘ : n btained from this source since the discovery of a congener next to be 
© wood, in fact, all 
VOL. 1, ; 
parts of the tree, are possessed of intense bitterness, owing to the existence of Quassin in 
| . 
