y 



SIMA 



Eije Erragurg of botany. 



1060 



efficacy as an antidote for the bites of 

 snakes scorpions and other noxious ani- 

 mals, it being universally believed that its 

 application will neutralise the poison even 

 of the most dangerous among them. On 

 the latter account it is so much valued, that 

 there are scarcely any persons in New Gre- 

 nada or the adjacent countrieswho havenot 

 apiece of this seed.which they always carry 

 with them, and a single seed will sell for 

 four shillings. "When a bite has been re- 

 ceived a small quantity mixed with water 

 is applied to the wound, and about two 

 grains scraped into brandy (or, if it cannot 

 be obtained, into water) is given internal- 

 ly. The active principle on which the me- 

 dicinal qualities of the Cedron depend has 

 been separated by M. Lecoy, who has named 

 it cedrine. Every part of the plant but 

 especially the seed is, owing to its presence, 

 intensely bitter. Dr. Seemann has given a 

 full account of the Cedron in the Botany 

 of II. M. S. Herald. ■ [B. C.j 



SIMARUBACE^. An order of polype- 

 talous dicotyledons, consisting of trees or 

 shrubs remarkable for the bitter taste of 

 their bark, and natives of hot countries, a 

 very few only being found without the 

 tropics. They have generally alternate 

 compound leaves without transparent dots; 

 no stipules; small unisexual regular flowers 

 in axillary panicles or racemes; three to 

 five sepals and petals ; as many or twice as 

 many stamens inserted round the base of 

 a disk ; a free lobed ovary with as many 

 styles and cells as lobes ; and one ovule 

 laterally attached in each cell. The fruit is 

 various, the seeds solitary pendulous, with 

 or without albumen, and having a superior 

 radicle. All the above characters have, 

 however, exceptions in individual genera, 

 and it is only by various combinations of 

 the majority of characters that the order 

 can be distinguished from Rutacew, and 

 some others which are closely allied. 

 Thirty genera are referred to it, including 

 Quassia, Simaruba, Ailantus, Cneorum, 

 Brucea, Suriana, Brunellia, Picramnia, and 

 Balanites. 



SIMARUBA. The natives of Guiana apply 

 this name to a tree, some parts of which they 

 use with great success in dysentery. Bota- 

 nically it is applied to a genus of Simaru- 

 bacecE, consisting of tropical American 

 trees, with unisexual flowers ; calyx small 

 cup-shaped,flve-toothed; petals Ave, longer 

 than the calyx, spreading; stamens five, 

 surrounding as many rudimentary ovaries. 

 In the female flowers are five ovaries, 

 placed on a disk surrounded by ten scales 

 or rudimentary stamens; styles five, se- 

 parate below, above conjoined into one, 

 and terminated by a broader five-lobed 

 stigma; fruit of five drupes. 



S. amara, a native of the West Indies and 

 Guiana, yields the drug known as Simaruba- 

 bark, which is, strictly speaking, the rind of 

 the root. It is employed as a bitter tonic 

 in diarrhoea and dysentery, as well as in 

 various forms of indigestion. In large 

 doses it is said to act as an emetic purga- 

 tive and diaphoretic. S. versicolor, a Bra- 



zilian species, has similar properties. The 

 fruits and bark are used as anthelmintics, 

 and an infusion of the latter is employed 

 in cases of snake-bite. The plant is so 

 bitter that insects will not attack it, on 

 which account the powdered bark has been 



uba amara. 



employed to kill vermin. S. glanca, a 

 native of Cuba, furnishes a glutinous juice, 

 which is employed in certain cases of skin- 

 disease. S. amara (officinalis), the Mountain 

 Damson, is occasionally to be met with in 

 hothouses in this country. [M. T. M.] 

 SIMBI. Phaseolus trilobus. 



SIMETHIS. A genus of Liliaceaz allied 

 to Anthericum, but differing in the seg- 

 ments of the perianth being combined at 

 the base, the filaments being woolly on 

 the lower part, and the seeds only two for 

 one) in each cell of the capsule, furnished 

 with an arillus. It contains a single spe- 

 cies, S. bicolor, common in Western Europe, 

 but in the British Isles only found in Dor- 

 set Devon and Kerry. It is a small herb 

 with a slender rootstock, emittingatuft of 

 thick and fleshy fibres. The leaves are all 

 radical, grass-like; the scape branched at 

 the top, with a paniculate corymbose cyme 

 of rather small rose-coloured flowers, with 

 a spreading perianth. [J. T. S.] 



SIMILARY PARTS. The elementary 

 organs or tissues of plants— such as cellu- 

 lar tissue, woody tissue, spiral vessels, &c. 



SIMMONDSIA. The name of a genus of 

 Euphorbiacew, in which it is remarkable 

 from there being no albumen to the seed. 

 There is but one species, S. californica, a 

 small evergreen much-branched bush, 

 regularly forked and furnished with oppo- 

 site oblong-lanceolate entire leaves, and 

 inconspicuous green flowers borne in their 

 axils. The males are clustered, the fe- 

 males solitary and nodding— the former 

 with a five-parted calyx and ten or twelve 

 stamens, and the latter with a five-parted 

 calyx enclosing a three-celled ovary tipped 

 with three short styles. The mature nuts 

 resemble an ordinary acorn in size and 

 shape. They are said to have a flavour 

 like Alberts, but the after-taste is nauseous, 

 and they are apt to cause purging. The 



