476 



SIMARUBACE.E. 



[Hypogynous Exogens. 



Order CLXXIX. SIMARUBACEJE.— Quassiads. 



Gen. p. 65. 

 n urv(KK _ Ruta i Exoaem, with a few-seeded finally apocarpous fruit, whose pericarp 

 1 Tesnot faSJSTSi inconspicuous torus, excdoumi^us seeds, and alternate leaves 

 without stipules. 

 Trees or shrubs Leaves without stipules, alternate, occasionally simple most usually 



dite, or occasionally by abor- 

 tion unisexual. Calyx in 4 or 

 5 divisions, imbricated. Pe- 

 tals the same number, longer, 

 either spreading or combined 

 hi a tube; aestivation imbri- 

 cated. Stamens twice as 

 many as the petals, each 

 arising from the back of an 

 hypogynous scale. Ovary 4- 

 or 5-lobed, placed upon a stalk 

 1 from the base of which the 

 stamens arise, 4- or 5-celled, 

 each cell with 1 suspended 

 Fruit consisting of 4 or 5 drupes 

 Seeds pendulous, with a mem- 



Fig, ccexxx. 



anatropal ovule ; style simple ; stigma 4- or 5-lobed 



arranged around a common receptacle, mdehiscent ■ y«~— 



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



^SasSdf aretit'r'Beancapers in their stamens inserted upon hypogynous 

 scats and to Ochnads hi their deeply-lobed ovary or nearly separate ovaries; rom 

 these la ter they are distinguished by their want of a succulent torus, and by then 

 uSLftafc* by longitudinal slits, not by terminal pores. A de Jussieu says, 

 " Thev are k own from all Rutals by the co-existence of these characters ; namely, 

 ovarie^w tl Tu one ovule, indehiscent drupes, exalbuminous seeds, amyous 

 fntecrument of the embryo, and the radicle being retracted within thick cotyledons 

 ^SffS £2£ of tropic'al America, India, or Africa, with the exception of one Nipal 



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

 veiSolor o St?Hilah-e, possesses such excessive bitterness that no insects will attack 

 r Soecimens of it placed among dried plants which were entirely devoured by the 

 Lv7of Tspecies of Ptinus, remained untouched. The Brazilians use an miuaMim 

 h^^lv as a specific against the bite of serpents, and also employ it with very great 

 succe/s to cufe the lousy diseases to which people are subject in those countries 



SZSSS^ — is "»»* «** • Lu f rV^m tTp i™ "excX 

 Keren. »o»d i. inferior in cu» l.ly. 1™ Louver ^ ^ Lan^«» ^ 



s srsMfsa sg or » **_. s ^m-jisiz 



Surinam Quassia wood is m iact no longer used even in that colony as flowe _ 

 bengXughttohave some bad properties along with its .intense Wtor. Theft ow«j 

 are however still infused in wine or water as a stomachic The £ttei 'la^bee 



