506 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



particularly Jamaica, where it is known under the name of Mountain Damson 

 The bark of the root acts as a tonic, and has been used in diarrhoea, dysen- 

 tery, &c. It contains Quassine, the same principle which has been found in 

 Jamaica Quassia-wood. (See above.) 



Many other plants belonging to the Simarubaceae have analogous properties 

 to the above, and are used, accordingly, in similar cases. 



Natural Order 64. ZYGOPHYLLACEiE. — The Bean-Caper or 

 Guaiacum Order. — General Character. — Herbs, shrubs, or 

 trees. Leaves opposite, stipulate, without dots, usually impari- 

 pinnate, rarely simple. Flowers perfect, regular, and symmetri- 

 cal. Calyx 4 or 5 -parted, convolute. Petals unguiculate, 4 or 5, 

 imbricated in estivation, hypogynous. Stamens 8 — 10, hypo- 

 gynous, usually arising from the back of small scales ; filaments 

 dilated at the base. Ovary 4 — 5-celled, surrounded by glands, 

 or a toothed disk ; style simple ; ovules 2 or more in each cell 

 (Jigs. 643 and 644), pendulous, or rarely erect ; placentas axile. 

 Fruit capsular, dehiscing in a loculicidal manner, or separating 

 into cocci 4 or 5-celled, and presenting externally as many angles 

 or winged expansions as cells ; rarely indehiscent. Seeds few, 

 albuminous except in Tribulus and Kallstromia ; embryo green ; 

 radicle superior ; cotyledons foliaceous. 



Diagnosis. — Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with opposite stipulate 

 leaves without dots. Calyx and corolla with a quaternary or 

 quinary distribution ; the former convolute in aestivation, the 

 latter with unguiculate petals and imbricated. Stamens 8 — 10, 

 hypogynous, usually arising from the back of scales. Ovary 

 4 — 5 celled; style simple. Fruit 4 or 5-celled. Seeds few, with 

 a little or no albumen ; radicle superior ; cotyledons foliaceous. 



Distribution, 8fc. — They are generally distributed throughout 

 the warm regions of the globe, but chiefly beyond the tropics. 

 Examples : — Tribulus, Peganum. Fagonia, Zygophyllum, Guai- 

 acum, Melianthus. There are 9 genera, and 100 species. 

 Melianthus is by some botanists separated from the Zygophyl- 

 lacese, and taken as the type of a new order, to which the name 

 Melianthcaa has been apphed. Meliantheas is supposed to be 

 allied to Geraniaceai and Sapindaceae. 



Properties and Uses. — Some of the plants of the order are 

 resinous, and possess stimulant, alterative, and diaphoretic pro- 

 perties; others are anthelmintic. The wood of the arborescent 

 Bpccics is remarkable for its hardness and durability. The fol- 

 lowing are the more important plants : — 



Tribulus terrestrix is a prickly plant, which is abundant in dry barren places 

 in the F-a»t. It is considered to be the Thistle mentioned in Malt. vii. 16., and 

 Heh. vi. 8. 



Peganum liarmala The seeds are used by the Turks as a spice, and to 



produce a red dv<'. 



Zi/g(>p/it/flu7n Fahnno. Bean-Caper.— It derives its common name from the 

 circumstance of its flower-buds being used in some parts of the world as sub- 

 stitutes for the Common Capers. It is also reputed to possess anthelmintic 

 properties. Z. simplex has a very fetid odour. 



Larrea mericann. — This plant is remarkable for having an odour resembling 

 creasote, hence it is commonly known as the Creasote Plant. 



