CEDRELA, a genus of plants, the type of the natural order Cectre/acyce. It has the following characters :—Calyx 5-toothed ; petals adnate to the torus ; stamens 5, distinct ; capsule 5-celled, 5-valved ; seeds numerous, on each side of the dissepimcnt ending in a wing.
C. Toona, Bastard Cedar, has lanceolate leaflets, acuminate, entire, pale glaucous beneath. It is a native of the East Indies, where it is called Toon. It has an erect trunk of great height and size, with smooth gray bark. The flowers are very numerous, small, white, fragrant, like honey. The seeds are numerous, imbricated, winged. The bark is a powerful astringent, and is said to be a good substitute for Peruvian Bark in the cure of periodic diseases. Dr. Blume used it in Java with much success in the various forms of fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, kc. Horsfield also used it in dysentery.
C. odarala has leaflets ovate-lanceolate, entire, on short stalks. It is a native of Barbadoes and the Caribbee Islands. It is a large tree with a rough bark. The fruit is about the size of a partridge-egg. When fresh the bark and berries smell like assafcetida. The trunk is hollowed out into canoes. The wood is of a brown colour and has a fragrant odour, from which circumstance it is called Cedar in the British West India Islands. It is frequently cut into shingles for covering houses, but it is not adapted for ship-building on account of its being subject to the attacks of worms. It is not adapted for casks, as it gives its odour to whatever is placed in contact with it.
C. febrifuga (Soymidia febrifuga) has leaflets ovate-oblong, acu minated, quite entire. It is a native of Java. Its bark is said to have a better effect on some of the fevers of India than cinchona. It is also a powerful astringent. The wood is good for many purposes.
CEDRELA'CErE, a natural order of plants, belonging to the Syncarpous group of Polypetalous Exogens. The species are timber
trees : the timber is usually compact, scented, and beautifully veined ; the leaves are alternate, pinnated, without stipules; the flowers are in terminal panicles. The essential characters of the order are : Calyx 4-5-cleft, petals 4-5, longer than the sepals ; stamens 8-10, the filaments either curled into a tube or dinstinct, and inserted into a hypogynous disc ; the style and stigmas simple ; the cells of the ovary equal in number to the petals or flower, with the ovules 4 or often more, imbricated in two rows; the first capsular with the valves separable from the dissepiments, with which they alternate ; the i seeds flat, winged; albumen thin or none. This order is nearly related to Meliacece, from which it is chiefly distinguished by its winged and indefinite seeds.
The dotted leaves of seine species connect this order with A uran tiacece. It contains 9 genera and about 25 species.
An essential oil called Wood-Oil is fuund in Chloroxylon Swietenia, which is a native of the East Indies. The wood is of a deep yellow colour, and called Satio-Wootl, remarkably eIoeo-gra1ned, heavy, and durable, and comes nearer to box-wood than the produce of any other tree. Ilindersia possesses a volatile oil. F. Australis is a native of Australia, and its wood is said to be not inferior to mahogany. F. Atnboinensis is • native of the islands of Ilitu and Ceram. The spiny part of the fruit is formed into rasps. It was on this account called by Runiphitts .Arbor radial/ern. 0.rleya .rantho .ryla in • native of Australia. It attains a height of 100 feet. The wood is yellow, and employed for building boats. It is called Yellow-Wood. [SWIETENU CEDIIELA.2 (Lindley, Flora Nedica ; Don, Ga ner's Dictionary; Lindley, Natural System)