Spec. Plant. Willd. ii. 567. Cl. 10. Ord. 1. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Simarubeaceae. G. 849. Calyx five-leaved. Petals five. Nectary five-leaved.

Drupes five, distant, bivalve, inserted into a fleshy receptacle. Species 2. Simaruba officinalis. Simaruba Quassia.1 Med. Bot.

3d edit. 569. t. 203. Trans, of the Royal Society of Edin. ii. 73-81.

1 Named after Quassia, a negro slave, who discovered to Rolander the wood of the Quassia excelsa, which he had employed with success as a secret remedy in the

1. Simaruba officinalis.

Officinal. Simaruba, Lond. Quassiae Simarubae cortex, Edin. Cortex radicis, Dub. Simaruba bark and wood. Syn. Ecorce de Simarouba (F.), Simarubenrinde (G.), Corteccia de Simaruba an ammoniacal salt, acetate of potassa, malate and oxalate of lime, oxide of iron, alumen, and a peculiar bitter principle, which they have named quassina.1

The Simaruba quassia, or mountain damson, as it is called in Jamaica, is a native of South America, Carolina, and the West Indian islands, growing in sandy places. It is a tall tree, with alternate branches, and a smooth grey bark, maculated with yellow spots. The leaves are pinnate, consisting of from two to nine leaflets, placed alternately on short petioles, elliptical, acute, smooth, and of a deep green colour above, and whitish beneath : the flowers are male and female on the same axillary panicles : the calyx in both is monophyllous and five-toothed : the petals lanceolate, yellowish, white, and inserted into the calyx : the nectary in the male is a small scale affixed to the inner part of the base of each filament; and the same in the female, except that the scales are placed in a regular circle: the filaments of the male are the length of the corolla; and in the female are five connate germens, with five striated styles and spreading stigmas; the fruit, according to Gaertner, consist of five smooth, ovate, black, one-celled berries, on a common receptacle; and opening spontaneously when ripe.2

The officinal part of this tree is the bark of the root: and although the wood is designated by the Dublin College, yet it is quite inert. The bark is imported in long pieces, a few inches in breadth, and folded lengthwise. It comes generally from Jamaica packed in bales.

Qualities.-Simaruba bark is inodorous, and has a bitter but not disagreeable taste. The pieces are of a very fibrous texture, rough, scaly, warty, and of a full yellow colour in the inside when fresh. Alcohol, wine, and also water, take up all its active matter by simple maceration, at a temperature of 60°; Fahrenheit, better than at a boiling heat. The infusion is stronger in taste than the decoction, which grows turbid, and of a reddish brown colour, as it cools. The infusion is little affected by sulphate of iron or chloride of tin. M. Morin and Rouen have analyzed simaruba, and found in it resin, a volatile oil having the odour of benzoin, malic and gallic acids, malignant endemic fevers of Surinam. The genus is placed in the class Decan-dria, because the Quassia amara, from which the generic description is taken, has hermaphrodite flowers.

2 Owing to this circumstance, Gaertner allows that the pericarp is something between a berry and a capsule. It is certainly not a drupe, although mentioned as such in the generic character by Willdenow.

Medical properties and uses.-This bark is tonic; and has been employed with advantage in intermittent fever, obstinate diarrhoea, dysentery, and dyspeptic affections. It was first introduced at Paris in 1713, as a powerful remedy in dysentery : but its effects in this disease were previously known to the natives of Guiana, whence it was brought to France. Simaruba bark, however, was little known in this country till Dr. Wright's paper on it appeared in the Edinburgh Transactions. It cannot with propriety be used in the commencement of dysentery; but after the fever has abated, when the tenesmus continues, with a weak sinking state of the pulse, it allays this symptom and griping, promotes the secretion of urine, determines to the surface, and restores the tone of the intestines. It has also been highly commended as a remedy in fluor albus; but notwithstanding the high character which it acquired, simaruba is not much employed by the British practitioner. It may be combined with aromatics and opium.

The dose in substance is from Э j. to 3 ss; but it is more frequently and commodiously given in the form of infusion.

Officinal preparation.-Infusum Simarubae, L. D.