SITTER HORTUS JAMAICENSIS!. OB 



four, parts, slightly cohering ; style tliickish, erect ; slignias two, threo, or four 

 simple dec;ind; tiie pericaijnum two, tlireo, or lour (irujjes, globuje, scarcely 

 ji-iniuu', black, siiuiing, and inserted into tiie receptiicle ; seeds solitary, globose, 

 unilocular, covered by a fragile shell. 



POLYGAMA. POLYGAMY. 



The-follnwing is an account of the quassia polyt^ama, or bitter wood of Jamaica, hy. 

 Jlr. Joan Lindsay, formerly surL^eon in Westmorianii ; which was read before the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, November 7, 1791: 



" The quassia po/j/gama has long been known in Jamaica, and in some other islands ia 

 the West Indies, not only as an excellent timber, but as an useful medicine in putrid 

 fevers and fluxes.- Witii us it is called bitter wood, and in the windward islands bitter 

 ash. The bark has for some time been prescribed by pw.ctitioncrs here, and exported 

 to F^igland in considerable quantities, for the purposes of the brewers of ale and 

 porter. On tiiese accounts, a fuller description of this plant th.m has hitherto apjjeared 

 will be acceptable to the botanist and the jiublie at large. It is very common in the 

 woodlands oflJainaica, is beautit'ul, tall, and stately, some of tliem being one hundred 

 feet long, and ten feet in circumference eight feet above the ground. The trunk is 

 straight, smooth, and tapering, sending oil its branches towards the top. The outsidp- 

 bark is pretty smo.jth,. of a light grey or ash colour, from various lichens. The bark 

 of the roots is of a yellowish cast, somewhat like the cortex simaruba. The inner bark 

 is tough, and composeil of fine flaxy fibres. The wood is of a yellow colour, tough, 

 but not very. hartl. It takes a good polish, and is useful in flooi'ing. The leaves are 

 sub-alternate ; ttie small leaves are in pairs, from five to eight, standing opposite to 

 each ociier on-short footstalks, and en. ling with an odd one. They are of an oblong 

 oval shape, and pointed ; the ribs reddish, and the young leaves are covered with a 

 fine brownish down. The fiowers come out ia bunches or clusters from the lower part 

 cf the last shoot Ijefore the leaves, and stand 0:1 round footstalks. The flowers are 

 small, of a yellowish green colour, with a very small calyx. The male or barren trefo 

 has flowers nearly similar to the hermaphrodite, but in it there are only the rudiments- 

 f a style. The fruit is a smooth black drupe, round shaped, ar.d of the size of a pea. 

 There is but little pulp, and the nut covers 3 round kernel. These drupaj are gene* 

 rally three, sometimes two, and often only one, attached sidewise to a roundish fleshy 

 receptacle. It flowers in October and November, and its fruit is ripe in December and 

 January. Except tlie pulp of the fruit, every other part of this tree has an intensely 

 bitter taste. In taste and virtues it is nearly.eqaal to the quassia of Surinam, and I am 

 credibly informed^is sold in Lo'idon for the quassia amai^a ; and it may be safely used 

 in all cases vvbere that drug has been thought proper ; whether as an antiseptic, or in 

 cases of weakness iu the stomach and bowels. It may either be given alone, or joined 

 with the Jesuits bark. The happiest effects result from the use of this metlicine in ob- 

 stinate remitting fevers from marsh miasmata, in agues which liatl resisted the use of 

 Jesuits bark, and in dysenteries of long standing. It is in daily practice in dropsiej 

 from debility, either in simple infusions or tincture by itself, or joined with aromatics 

 , and chalybeats. Dr. Drummond, an eminent piiysician in Jamaica, prescribes it with 

 , ;great success in the above cases, as well as in amenorrlioea, chlorosis, dyspepsia, and 

 in that species of pica called dirt-eating, so fatal to a numoer of negroes. Tne bark of 

 the (luassia p.jlygama, but especially the wood, is intensely bitter. They may both be 

 Uicd m vaiiuus i'unns. In certain cases of tiropsy, aioinatics and preparations ai"e joined 



