S1MARUBACE/E. 



iii. t. 171. Woodv. t. 76. Simaruba officinalis DC. diss. 

 ochn. ann. mus. xvii. 323. prodr. i. 733. Macfady. Jamaica 

 i. 198. Sandy moist places in Guayanaand Cayenne ; common 

 on the Port-Royal Mountains, Jamaica. 



A tree with long horizontal creeping roots and a trunk 60 feet high 

 branched at the summit. Leaves alternate, pinnated ; leaflets alternate 

 2-9 on each side, oval, smooth, firm, mucronate ; petiole of the largest 

 leaves as much as 14 inches long. Flowers some male others female, 

 mixed upon branched scattered panicles, very small. Petals stiff, 

 sharp-pointed, whitish, fixed between a membranous disk and the 

 calyx. Filaments each arising out of a small rounded velvety scale. 

 Capsules 5, ovate, blackish, disjoined, placed on a fleshy disk, with a 

 rather fleshy pericarp. Aubl. Bark of the root and stem yields a 

 whitish juice. The bark of the root is stripped off, and sent to Europe 

 for sale. In Cayenne the decoction which is bitter, purgative, and even 

 emetic, is used in fevers and diarrhoea. The wood has similar proper- 

 ties but is less active. The Jamaica plant which being dioecious may be 

 another species, although Dr. Macfadyen represents it as agreeing with 

 Aublet's figure, has an inodorous bitter bark which yields its properties 

 to both alcohol and water. It has been remarked that the infusion is 

 more bitter than the decoction. It acts as a tonic and is used in 

 dyspepsia, diarrhoea, chronic dysentery and all cases of impaired tone of 

 the alimentary canal. Macfadyen. 1 see no justification for changing 

 Aublet's specific name of amara into officinalis. 



426. S. versicolor Aug. de St. Hil.pl. us. No. 5.^. bras. i. 70. 



Plains of Brazil in the western part of the province of Minas 

 Geraes. (Paraiba.) 



Leaves pinnated ; leaflets oblong-elliptical, very obtuse, retuse, with 

 a downy midrib. Panicle terminal, lax. Flowers dioecious, decandrous. 



So intensely bitter that no insects will attack the wood. 



PICR^ENA. 



Flowers polygamous. Sepals 5, minute. Petals 5, longer 

 than the sepals. Stamens 5, about as long as the petals, rather 

 shaggy ; anthers roundish. Ovaries 3, seated on a round tumid 

 receptacle. Style 3-cornered, trifid : stigmas simple, spreading. 

 Fruit 3, globose, 1 -celled, 2-valved drupes, which are distant 

 from each other, and placed on a broad hemispherical recep- 

 tacle. 



427. P. excelsa. Quassia excelsa Swartz.fl. ind. occ. ii. 742. 

 S. and C. iii. t. 173. Simaruba? excelsa DC. prodr. i. 733. 

 Macfady. fl. jam. i. 198. Quassia polygama Lindsay in act. 

 Edin. iii. 205. Common on the plains and lower mountains of 

 Jamaica. 



A tree, 50-60 feet high. Leaves alternate, unequally-pinnate ; leaf- 

 lets opposite, short-stalked, oblong, acuminate, unequal at the base, 

 blunt at the apex, veiny glabrous. Racemes towards the ends of the 

 branchlets, axillary, very compound, panicled, subcorymbose, dichoto- 

 mously branched, spreading, many-flowered. Peduncle compressed, 



208 



