Flora Medica

ufescent, downy. Flowers small, pale, polygamous. Filaments of the,male flower much larger than the petals: in the fertile, of the samelength. 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, fixedon a hemispherical receptacle: nut solitary, globose, with the shellfragile.The intensely bitter timber furnishes the Quassia chips of theshops, so extensively employed on account of their tonic stomachicproperties. It has been used as a substitute for hops in the manufactureof beer. An infusion of the chips isemployed to poison flies.Mons. Adr. De Jussieu has long since shown that this plant is not aSimaruba. It appears better at once to it give a name than to let itremain as a spurious species in a genus to the character of which itdoes not answer.NIMA.Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx 5-parted, permanent. Petals5, oblong. Stamens 5, with the filaments dilated at the base.Ovaries 5, united, hairy, placed on a thick receptacle bearingthe petals at the base. Styles 5, united, distinct and revoluteat the apex. Capsules 5, or by abortion 2-3, roundish, 1 -seeded.Embryo large, without albumen. A. de J.428. Nima quassioides Hamilt. A. de J. rutac. 134. Simabaquassioides Don. prodr. 248. Nepal, Himalaya Mountains.Leaves unequally pinnated, in 4 pairs ; leaflets oblong, acuminate,serrated. Flowers in corymbose panicles. As bitter as the Quassiaof South America. Royle essay, fyc. p. 8.RUTACE^E.Nat.syst.ed. 2. p. 130.RUTA.Calyx 4-partite, at length deciduous. Petals 4, longer thanthe calyx, unguiculate: the limb vaulted, usually waved orjagged. Stamens 8, longer than the petals: filaments subulate,glabrous anthers : ovate, obtuse. Receptacle usually broaderthan the ovary, marked round with 8 nectariferous pores, bearingthe petals and stamens at the base. Carpels 4, partly combinedby means of the central axis into one '4-lobed ovary :ovules 6-12 (or rarely 2 collateral),in each cell. Styles 4, distinctat the base, where they spring from the inner angle of thecarpels above the common axis, united upwards into a single209 P