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A tall tree (Simaruba amara) growing in tropical America. It is one of the trees which yields quassia.

or pertaining to a natural order (Sterculiaceæ) of polypetalous exogenous plants, mostly tropical. The cacao (Theobroma Cacao) is the most useful plant of the order.

A genus of tropical apocynaceous shrubs having singularly twisted flowers. One species (Strophanthus hispidus) is used medicinally as a cardiac sedative and stimulant.

A genus of tropical trees and shrubs of the order Loganiaceæ. See Nux vomica.

Libya's sultry deserts. Such as, born beneath the burning sky And sultry sun, betwixt the tropics lie. Dryden.

A somewhat similar tropical American plant (Paullinia Curassavica); also, a walking stick made from its stem. He was in form and spirit like a supple-jack, . . . yielding, but tough; though he bent, he never broke. W. Irving.

A name for two tropical American weeds (Capraria biflora, and Scoparia dulcis) of the Figwort family.

A bitter balsamic resin obtained from tropical American trees of the genus Elaphrium (E. tomentosum and E. Tacamahaca), and also from East Indian trees of the genus Calophyllum; also, the resinous exhudation of the balsam poplar.

A beautiful tropical palm tree (Corypha umbraculifera), a native of Ceylon and the Malabar coast. It has a trunk sixty or seventy feet high, bearing a crown of gigantic fan-shaped leaves which are used as umbrellas and as fans in ceremonial processions, and, when cut into strips, as a substitute for writing paper.…

A small ant-eater (Tamandua tetradactyla) native of the tropical parts of South America.

A leguminous tree (Tamarindus Indica) cultivated both the Indies, and the other tropical countries, for the sake of its shade, and for its fruit. The trunk of the tree is lofty and large, with wide- spreading branches; the flowers are in racemes at the ends of the branches. The leaves are small and finely pinnated.…

ovate-sagittate leaves and large fleshy rootstocks, which are cooked and used for food in tropical countries.

The giant armadillo (Priodontes gigas) of tropical South America. It becomes nearly five feet long including the tail. It is noted for its burrowing powers, feeds largely upon dead animals, and sometimes invades human graves.

An armadillo (Xenurus unicinctus), native of the tropical parts of South America. It has about thirteen movable bands composed of small, nearly square, scales. The head is long; the tail is round and tapered, and nearly destitute of scales; the claws of the fore feet are very large. Called also tatouary, and broad-band…

ht as air. Pope. Temperate zone (Geog.), that part of the earth which lies between either tropic and the corresponding polar circle; -- so called because the heat is less than in the torrid zone, and the cold less than in the frigid zones.

A large oceanic fish (Elops saurus) found in the tropical parts of all the oceans. It is used chiefly for bait.

A genus of leguminous shrubby plants and herbs, mostly found in tropical countries, a few herbaceous species being North American. The foliage is often ashy-pubescent, whence the name.

line, or surface; to stop short; to end; to cease; as, the torrid zone terminates at the tropics.

One of a tribe of fresh-water crabs which live in or on the banks of rivers in tropical countries.

A genus of epiphytic endogenous plants found in the Southern United States and in tropical America. Tillandsia usneoides, called long moss, black moss, Spanish moss, and Florida moss, has a very slender pendulous branching stem, and forms great hanging tufts on the branches of trees. It is often used for stuffing mattr…