Flora Medica

S1MARUBACE/E.iii. t. 171. Woodv. t. 76. Simaruba officinalis DC. diss.ochn. ann. mus. xvii. 323. prodr.i. 733. Macfady. Jamaicai. 198. Sandy moist places in Guayanaand Cayenne common;on the Port-Royal Mountains, Jamaica.A tree with long horizontal creeping roots and a trunk 60 feet highbranched at the summit. Leaves alternate, pinnated ; leaflets alternate2-9 on each side, oval, smooth, firm, mucronate ; petiole of the largestleaves as much as 14 inches long. Flowers some male others female,mixed upon branched scattered panicles, very small. Petals stiff,sharp-pointed, whitish, fixed between a membranous disk and thecalyx. Filaments each arising out of a small rounded velvety scale.Capsules 5, ovate, blackish, disjoined, placed on a fleshy disk, with arather fleshy pericarp.Aubl. Bark of the root and stem yields awhitish juice. The bark of the root is stripped off, and sent to Europefor sale. In Cayenne the decoction which is bitter, purgative, and evenemetic, is used in fevers and diarrhoea. The wood has similar propertiesbut is less active. The Jamaica plant which being dioecious may beanother species, although Dr. Macfadyen represents it as agreeing withAublet's figure, has an inodorous bitter bark which yields its propertiesto both alcohol and water. It has been remarked that the infusion ismore bitter than the decoction. It acts as a tonic and is used indyspepsia, diarrhoea, chronic dysentery and all cases of impaired tone ofthe alimentary canal. Macfadyen. 1 see no justification for changingAublet's specific name of amara into officinalis.426. S. versicolor Aug. de St. Hil.pl. us. No. bras. i.5.^.70.Plains of Brazil in the western part of the province of MinasGeraes. (Paraiba.)Leaves pinnated ; leaflets oblong-elliptical, very obtuse, retuse, witha downy midrib. Panicle terminal, lax. Flowers dioecious, decandrous.So intensely bitter that no insects will attack the wood.PICR^ENA.Flowers polygamous. Sepals 5, minute. Petals 5, longerthan the sepals. Stamens 5, about as long as the petals, rathershaggy; anthers roundish. Ovaries 3, seated on a round tumidreceptacle. Style 3-cornered, trifid :stigmas simple, spreading.Fruit 3, globose, 1 -celled, 2-valved drupes, which are distantfrom each other, and placed on a broad hemispherical receptacle.427. P. excelsa. Quassia excelsa Swartz.fl.ind. occ. ii. 742.S. and C. iii. t. 173. Simaruba? excelsa DC. prodr.i. 733.Macfady. fl. jam. i. 198. Quassia polygama Lindsay in act.Edin. iii. 205. Common on the plains and lower mountains ofJamaica.A tree, 50-60 feet high. Leaves alternate, unequally-pinnate ; leafletsopposite, short-stalked, oblong, acuminate, unequal at the base,blunt at the apex, veiny glabrous. Racemes towards the ends of thebranchlets, axillary, very compound, panicled, subcorymbose, dichotomouslybranched, spreading, many-flowered. Peduncle compressed,208