56 THE BOTANY OF BERMUDA. 



The name immortalizes Quassi, a negro slave of Surinam, who made 

 known the medicinal properties of one of the species. 



Ailanthus glandulosa, Desf. 



Ori.fjinally from Chiua. Introduced by Governor Elliott. The finest 

 trees are at the public buildings, Hamilton. 



Xanthoxylum Clava-HercuUs, Linn. 



A single tree of about 10 inches diameter on a hill east of Paynter's 

 vale. Easily known by the large pellucid points in the leaflets and 

 their strongly aromatic taste. Although this tree was the object of 

 numberless visits at all seasons, the writer could never find fruit or 

 flower; nevertheless there are a few seedlings to be found among the 

 iSage and 8ponia bushes around. 



According to one tradition this tree, now 30^ inches in girth, was planted 

 about a century ago by a Mr. Paynter, and has not increased in size 

 within memory; it does not however look an old tree. The writer in- 

 clines to believe that it is a last survivor of the native " yellow wood" 

 frequently mentioned in the first accounts of the island.* Every en- 

 deavor to transplant young plants failed, owing to the impossibility of 

 extricating their long tap root unbroken from the crevices of the rocks. 



Citrus Limonum, Risso. 



The common wild lemon, berry ovoid, tubercled or rugulose; very 

 acid; leaf-stalks with scarcely any trace of a winged margin. (C. spin- 

 osisswia, Eein.) 



Var. called Pumpnosed lemon. 



Var. with smooth skin of small size, 1| to 1^ inches in diameter and 

 i^.early glohnlar. C. limetta, Risso. 



Var. with smooth skin, of larger size, ovoid, called the Lisbon lemon. 



*" The timber of the country consisteth of three sorts ; the one is the cedar ; very fine 

 timber to worke upon, of color rerlde, and verie sweete ; the other sorts wee have no name 

 for, for there is none in the company hath seen the like in other countries before wee 

 came: some did thinke it to be lignum vitce but it is not soe, it is a verie fine wood, of 

 colour yellow, and it bears a leaf like unto a walnut tree, and the rine or barke is 

 is mucb like a walnut tree, and the barke if oue taste of it will bite one's tongue as if it 

 were Ginney Pepper. That wood also is very sweet." 



This description applies closely to Xanthoxylum. Professor Oliver, writing from 

 Kew in October, 1872, having only leaves before him, remarked: "The leaves, 

 strongly transluceutly dotted, without flowers, must belong to a species of Xanihory- 

 liim, and agree fairly with a flowerless Dominica specimen, which has been queried as 

 X. aromaticum but the species must remain doubtful until we have flower and fruit, 

 which we shall be particularly obliged for." The visitor, therefore, who shall bo so 

 fortunate as to fiud the tree in flower, will help to solve a problem of unusual botan- 

 ical interest. 



