198 
THALAMIFLOR2E. 
I. SlMARUBA. 
Flowers by abortion monoecious dioecious or poly- 
gamous. Calyx small, 5-partite. Petals 5, a little 
larger than the calyx. Stamens 5-10, increased at 
the base by means of scales. Style partite at the apex. 
Name , from the Indian designation of the tree in Cayenne. 
1. Simaruba excelsa. Lofty Bitter-wood. 
Flowers polygamous pentandrous panicled, stigma 
3-fid, leaves impari-pinnate, leaflets opposite petiolu- 
lated. 
Quassia excelsa, Swartz, FI. hid. Occ. 742. — Q. polygama, 
Lindsay, Trans. Soc. Edin. III. 205. — Simaruba excelsa, De 
Cand. Prod. I. 733. 
HAB. Common on the plains and lower mountains. 
FL. December. 
A tree, 50-60 feet in height, with the brandies spreading; 
the bark rimose, ash-coloured, internally albido-florescent with 
very tenaceous fibrils. Leaves alternate, impari-pinnate; leaf- 
lets opposite, shortly petioluled, oblong, acuminate, unequal at 
the base, blunt at the apex, venose, glabrous. Racemes towards 
the ends of the branchlets, axillary, very compound, panicled, 
subcorymbose, dichotomously branched, spreading, diffuse, many- 
flowered. Peduncle compressed, rufescenti-puberulous. Flow- 
ers small, pale, polygamous. Filaments of the male flower 
much larger than the petals : in the fertile, of the same length. 
In the male, merely the rudiments of the pistil : in the fertile, 
ovaries 3 : style longer than the stamens, 3-quetrous, 3-fid. 
Drupes 3, but only one coming to perfection, size of a pea, 
black, shining, fixed on a hemispherical receptacle : nut solitary, 
globose, with the shell fragile. 
A lofty spreading tree. It is an excellent timber; the wood 
is of a yellow colour, light and not very hard, takes a very fine 
polish, and is much used in flooring. Bed-posts and clothes- 
presses have been made of it, as no insect remains near the 
wood, on account of its bitter quality. It is from it that the 
Quassia chips of the shops is obtained, and not from the Quas- 
sia amara, which is only a shrub. It is intensely bitter to the 
taste, and as a medicine, is tonic and stomachic. It has been 
employed as a substitute for hops in brewing porter ; but the 
bitter is not so agreeable as that of the hop, and remains longer 
on the palate. An infusion of the chips is made use of to poi- 
son flies. 
2. Simaruba officinalis. Officinal Bitter-wood. 
Flowers dioecious, male decandrous, stigmata .5-par- 
