SIM ARUB AC E M. 391 



within fleshy albumen ; radicle superior ; cotyledons ovate, flat. 

 Trees or shrubs, with exstipulate alternate or opposite leaves, having 

 pellucid dots. They exist chiefly in the tropical parts of America. 

 Lindley enumerates 20 genera, including 110 species. 



830. The plants yield a volatile oil which is aromatic and pungent. 

 Some are diaphoretic in their properties, others are febrifugal and 

 tonic. The pungency of species of Xanihoxylon has caused them 

 sometimes to be denominated peppers. Xanthoxylon fraxineum, or 

 prickly ash, acts as a sialagogue. X. caribceum, has a bitter and febri- 

 fugal bark. The bitter principle secreted by many of the plants of 

 this order is called Xanthopicrine. 



831. Order 58. simarnbaceie, the Quassia and Simaruba Family. 

 (Poly pet Hypog.) Flowers usually hermaphrodite. Calyx in 4 or 5 

 divisions; aestivation imbricated. Petals 4 or 5, spreading or connivent 

 into a kind of tube; gestivation twisted. Stamens twice as many as 

 the petals; filaments arising from scales. Ovary 4-5-lobed, 4-5-celled, 

 supported on a gynophore ; ovules solitary ; style simple ; stigma 

 4-5-lobed. Fruit indehiscent, consisting of 4 or 5 drupes arranged 

 round a common receptacle. Seeds anatropal, pendulous ; embryo 

 exalbuminous. Trees or shrubs, with exstipulate, alternate, usually 

 compound leaves, without dots. They are found in the tropical parts 

 of America, Asia, and Africa. Lindley gives 10 genera, and 35 

 species. Examples Simaruba, Quassia, Picrsena. 



832. All the plants of the order are intensely bitter. Quassia wood 

 was originally the product of Quassia amara, a tall shrub, never above 

 15 feet in height, inhabiting Surinam, Guiana, and Colombia. It is a 

 very ornamental plant, and has remarkable pinnate leaves, with 

 winged petioles. In then* early state, the leaves seem to be simple, 

 but in the progress of growth two or more contractions take place, at 

 each of which two leaflets appear, the pairs being separated by a 

 winged midrib, a continuation of the petiole. This Surinam Quassia 

 does not appear to be exported now, and it is not met with in English 

 trade. A thriving specimen was recently sent to the Edinburgh Botanic 

 Garden by Professor Syme. The Quassia of the shops is the wood of 

 Simaruba or Picrcena excelsa, a very large forest tree, attaining a height 

 of nearly 100 feet, growing in Jamaica and other West Indian islands, 

 where it is called Bitter Ash, and Bitter Wood. Quassia is used 

 medicinally, in the form of infusion and tincture, as a tonic and anthel- 

 mintic. It acts as a narcotic poison on flies and other insects. Al- 

 though prohibited by law, it is frequently employed by brewers as a 

 substitute for hops. The bitterness of Quassia is said to be owing to 

 a crystalline principle called Quassin. The bark of the root of Sima- 

 ruba amara or officinalis, a tree found in Cayenne and in the West 

 Indies, is used as a bitter tonic and astringent, more especially in the 

 advanced stages of diarrhoea and dysentery. Brucea antidysenterica 



