RUTACEJS. 



413 



Quassia (Aruba) Ceclron. 



with a not very thick mesocarp, 1 and hard stone, containing a small 

 descending seed, the coats 2 of which envelop a fleshy exalbu- 

 minous embryo, with thick plano-convex 3 cotyledons, and short 

 cubical radicle. 4 Q. amara is a native of tropical America. It owes 

 its specific name to the fact that all 

 its parts are very decidedly and in- 

 tensely bitter. The leaves are alter- 

 nate, impari pinnate, glabrous, not 

 punctuate, exstipulate, with a petiole 

 and rachis developed on each side 

 into wings in the interval of the 

 leaves, which are opposite, entire, and 

 articulate. The flowers 5 are disposed 

 in terminal racemes, simple, or more 

 rarely ramified; each is situated in 

 the axil of a bract, and its articulate 

 pedicel bears two lateral bractlets. 



In a second species of this genus, 6 re- 

 cently discovered in tropical Western 

 Africa, the leaves have a scarcely 

 winged rachis ; and the flowers, of a 

 greenish yellow, have petals always 

 expanded at anthesis, while the sur- 

 face of the receptacle comprised be- 

 tween the androceum and the gynse- 



ceum takes the form of the trunk of a reversed pyramid, because the 

 ten scales accompanying the staminal filaments impress ten corre- 

 sponding faces upon the sides. 



In a certain number of American species, of which the genus 

 Aruhd' has been made, the receptacular faces exist, as do also the 



Fig. 468. 

 Long. sect, of drupe. 



1 The internal angle presents a vertical awn, 

 towards the summit of which is seen the cica- 

 trice of the style. Below is found the cicatrice 

 of the insertion of the carpel, a sort of tear ex- 

 tending deeply as far as the endocarp. 



2 There are two, thin hut distinct, although 

 adhering to each other. 



3 They are equal and lateral, or more rarely 

 unequal, one heing within, and in this case 

 smaller than the other. 



4 It has a truncate summit which scarcely 

 extends beyond the surface of the cotyledons, 

 and which appears as though encased in the 



base of the latter. A few small whole leaves 

 may be distinguished in the gemmule. 



5 Of a beautiful bright red. 



6 Q- africana H. Bn., in Adansonia, viii. 

 89, t. 8.— Olit., Fl. Trop. Afr., i. 312.— 

 Simaba Africana H. Bn., in Adansonia, vii. 

 381. 



7 Aubl., Guian., i. 293, t, 115. — H. Bn., in 

 Adansonia, x. 317. — Simaba Aubl., Guian., i. 

 400, t. 153.— DC, Prodr., i. 733.— A. S. H., 

 in Bull. Soc. Philom. (1823), 129.— A. Jtjss., 

 in Mem. 3fi<s., xii. 515, fig. 45. — Spach, Suit. 

 a Bitffon, ii. 376— Endl., Gen., n. 3964.— 



