135 



pcrties; the bark and wood of Guaiacum sanctum and officinale have a somewhat 

 bitter and acrid flavor, 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 vita;, is remarkable for the direc- 

 tion of its fibres, each layer of which crosses the preceding diagonally ; a cir- 

 cumstance first pointed out to me by Professor Voigt. 

 Examples. Zygophyllum, Tribulus. 



CXX. SIMARUBACEiE. The Quassia Tribe. 



Simarcbaceje, Rich. Anal, dc Fr. 21. (1808.)— Simarubeje, Dec. Diss. Ochn. Ann. Mus. 17. 

 323. (1811) ; Prodr. 1. 733.(1824) ; Adriende Juss. Rutacees, 129. (1825.) 



Diagnosis. Polypetalous dicotyledons, with definite hypogynous stamens, 

 concrete carpella, an entire ovarium of several cells, an imbricated calyx, sym- 

 metrical flowers, solitary pendulous ovules, stamens arising from hypogynous 

 scales, and exstipulate leaves without dots. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character.— Flowers monoclinous, or occasionally diclinous. Calyx in 4 or 

 5 divisions. Petals the same number, longer, either spreading or combined in a tube ; (Estiva- 

 tion twisted. Stamens twice as many as the petals, each arising from the back of a hypogy- 

 nous scale. Ovarium 4- or 5-lobed, placed upon a stalk from the base of which the stamena 

 arise, 4- or 5-celled, each cell with one suspended ovulum ; style simple ; stigma^ 4- or 5-lobed. 

 Fruit consisting of 4 or 5 drupes arranged around a common receptacle, indehiscent. Seeds 

 pendulous, with a membranous integument ; embryo without albumen ; radicle superior, short, 

 drawn back within the thick cotyledons. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves without stipulaj, alternate, 

 occasionally simple, most usually compound without dots. Peduncles axillary or terminal. 

 Mowers whitish, green, or purple. The different parts bitter. 



Affinities. Akin to Zygophylleee in their stamens inserted upon hypogy- 

 nous scales, and to Ochnacese in their deeply-lobed ovarium, or nearly separate 

 ovaria ; from these latter they are distinguished by their want of a succulent 

 disk, their suspended not erect ovules, and their anthers bursting by longitudinal 

 slits, not by terminal pores. A. de Jussieu says, " They are known from all 

 Rutaceous plants by the co-existence of three characters ; namely, ovaria with 

 but one ovulum, indehiscent drupes, and exalbuminous seeds, the membranous 

 integument of the embryo and the radicle being retracted within thick cotyle- 

 dons." 



Geography. All natives of tropical America, India, or Africa, with the ex- 

 ception of 1 Nipal plant. 



Properties. All intensely bitter. The wood of Quassia is well known. 

 A plant called Paraiba in Brazil, the Simaruba versicolor of St. Hilaire, pos- 

 sesses such excessive bitterness that no insects will attack it. Specimens of it 

 placed among dried plants which wereentirely devoured by the larvre of a species 

 of Ptinus, remained untouched. The Brazilians use an infusion in brandy as 

 a specific against the bite of serpents, and also employ it with very great suc- 

 cess to cure the lousy diseases to winch people are very subject in those coun- 

 tries. PI. Usuelles no. 5. 



Examples. Quassia, Simaruba. 



