137 



ment. Embryo ^een ; radicle superior ; cotyledons foliaceous ; albumen whitish, between 



horny and cartilaginous, in Tribnhis wanting. Ad. J //er6«cco«.s plants, shrubs, or 



trees, with a very liard wood, the branches often articulated at the joints. Leaves opposite, 

 with stipulw, very seldom simple, usually unequally pinnate, not dotted. Flowers solitary, 

 or in pairs or threes, white, blue, or red, often yellow. 



Affinities. Nearly related to Oxalidea?, from which, however, they 

 are distinguished by a multitude of characters. With Simarubacece they 

 accord in the stamens springing from the back of a hypogynous scale; a 

 structure well worth more attentive consideration than it has yet received. 

 Something analogous to it will be found in Caryophyllese. M. Adrien de 

 Jussieu also observes that the petals are remarkable for their being, in an 

 early state, minute and hidden by the calyx, which they only exceed about the 

 time of flowering, while in other Rutaceous orders the petals are always 

 larger than the calyx. The distinguishing characters in its vegetation or 

 habit are, the leaves being constantly opposite, with lateral or intermediate 

 stipuloe, being generally compound, and always destitute of the pellucid 

 glands which universally exist in true Diosmese. Brown in Denham, 26. 

 It is also a very common character of the order to have the radicle at that 

 extremity of the seed which is most remote from the hilum ; but this, which 

 is of great importance in many natural families, is of less value in Zygo- 

 phylleae. (See many good remarks upon this subject in Mr. Brown's 

 Appendix to Denham, p. 27.) 



Biebersteinia, appended to this order by A. de Jussieu, is a genus that 

 requires further examination. 



Geography, Guaiacum, Porlieria, and Larrea, are peculiar to Ame- 

 rica. Fagonia is distributed over the south of Europe, the Levant, Persia, 

 and India. Zygophyllum inhabits the same regions, and also the south 

 of Africa, and is represented in New Holland by Ropera. Tribulus is found 

 in all the Old World within the tropics, or in countries bordering upon 

 them. Ad. de J. Melianthus, a most anomalous genus, is remarkable for 

 being found both at the Cape of Good Hope and in Nipal, without any 

 intermediate station. 



Properties. Zygophyllum Fabago is sometimes employed as an an- 

 thelmintic. The ligneous plants of the order are remarkable for the extreme 

 hardness of their wood. All the Guaiacums are well known for their 

 exciting properties ; the bark and wood of Guaiacum sanctum and officinale 

 have a somewhat bitter and acrid flavour, and are principally employed as 

 sudorifics, diaphoretics, or alteratives ; they contain a particular matter often 

 designated as resin or gum-resin, but which is now considered a distinct 

 substance, called Guaiacine. Dec. The wood of Guaiacum officinale, or 

 Lignum vitse, is remarkable for the direction of its fibres, each layer of 

 which crosses the preceding diagonally ; a circumstance first pointed out 

 to me by Professor Voigt. 



Examples. Zygophyllum, Tribulus. 



CXX. SIMARUBACEiE. The Quassia Tkige. 



SiMARUBACE^, Rich. Anal, de Fr. 21. (1808) SimarubE-i;, Dec. Diss. Ochn. Ann. 



Mus. 17. 323. (1811); Prodr. 1. 733. (182J); Adrien de Juss. Rutacees, 129. 

 (1825.) 



Diagnosis. Polypetalous dicotyledons, with definite hypogynous sta- 

 mens, concrete carpella, an entire ovarium of several cells, an imbricated 



