476 



SIMARUBACE^. 



[Hypogvnous Exogens. 



Order CLXXIX. SIMARUBACEiE.— Quassiads. 



Simai'ubacese, Rich. Anal, du Fr. 21, (1808); Endl. Gen. ccxlLx.— Simarubese, DC. Diss. Ochn. Ann. 

 Mus. 17. 323.(1811); Prodr. 1. 733. (1824); Adrien de Juss. Rutacees, 129. (1825); Meisner, 

 Gen. p. 65. 



Diagnosis. — Butal Exogens, ivith a few-seeded finally apocai-pous fruitf lohose pericarp 

 does not laminate, a dry inconspicuous torus, exalhwninous seeds, and alternate leaves 

 witliout stipules. 



Trees or shnibs. Leaves without stipules, alternate, occasionally simple, most usually 

 compound, without dots. Pedimcles axillary or terminal. Flowers wliitish, green, or 



purple. Flowers hermaplu'o- 

 dite, or occasionally by abor- 

 tion unisexual. Calyx in 4 or 

 5 dix-isions, imbricated. Pe- 

 tals the same number, longer, 

 either spreading or combined 

 in a tube ; aestivation imbri- 

 cated. Stamens twice as 

 many as the petals, each 

 arising from the back of an 

 h;^^og)Tious scale. Ovary 4- 

 or 5-lobed, placed upon a stalk 

 fi'om the base of which the 

 stamens arise, 4- or 5-celled, 

 each cell with 1 suspended 

 anatropal o^^lle ; style simple ; stigma 4- or 5-lobed. Finiit consisting of 4 or 5 drupes 

 arranged around a common receptacle, indehiscent. Seeds pendulous, with a mem- 

 branous integument ; embryo without albumen ; radicle superior, short, drawn back 

 within the thick cotyledons. 



Quassiads are akin to Beancapers in their stamens inserted upon hypogynous 

 scales, and to Oclmads in theh* deeply-lobed ovaiy, or nearly separate ovaries ; from 

 these latter they are distinguished by their want of a succulent torus, and by their 

 anthers bui'sting by longitudinal slits, not by terminal pores. A. de Jussieu says, 

 '* They are known from all Rutals by the co-existence of these characters ; namely, 

 ovaries with but one ovule, indehiscent drupes, exalbuminous seeds, a membranous 

 integument of the embryo, and the radicle being retracted within thick cotyledons." 



All are natives of tropical America, India, or Africa, with the exception of one Nipal 

 plant. 



The species are intensely bitter. A plant called Paraiba in Brazil, the Simaruba 

 versicolor of St. Hilaire, possesses such excessive bitterness that no insects will attack 

 it. Specimens of it placed among dried plants which were entirely devoured by the 

 larvse 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 

 success to cm'e the lousy diseases to which people ai'e subject in those covm tries. 

 The wood of Quassia amara is intensely bitter. Lund and others assert that it does not 

 yield the Quassia chips of the European druggists, but refer them to Picrsena excelsa. 

 But Guibourt says that the wood of both the root and stem of this Quassia is imported 

 in the form of white scentless very Ught cylinders 1-2 inches in diameter ; and that the 

 Picraena wood is inferior in quaUty. I learn however from IMr. Lance, who resided for 

 many years in Surinam, that although large quantities of Quassia were exported 20 or 

 30 years since, yet that for many years none has been collected for that pm'pose, and 

 he did not hear of a single instance of its shipment during the 10 years he passed in 

 Surinam, Quassia wood is in fact no longer used even in that colony as a medicine, 

 being thought to have some bad propei'ties along with its intense bitter. The flowers 

 are however still infused in wine or water as a stomachic. The bitter has been used 

 as a substitute for hops in the manufactm-e of beer ; an infusion of the chips is 

 employed to poison flies. Simaruba amara is more commonly employed. The bark 

 of the root is stripped off and sent to Em*ope. In Cayemie the decoction, which is 

 bitter, purgative, and even emetic, is used in fevers and diarrhoea. The wood has similar 



Fig. CCCXXX.— Siraaba guianensis. 1. a flower with part cut away ; 2. pistil and two stamens ; 3. 

 fruit ; 4. a single carpel ; 5. cross section of it and of the seed which it contains. 



