206 An ACCOUNT of the 
Dr Patrick Browne, and after him Mr Longe, in their 
Hiftories of Jamaica, mention this tree by the names of Xy/o- 
picrum, Xylopia glabra, Bitter-wood or Bitter Afb. Mr Lone, 
in fpeaking of the Quafia Amara, thinks the Bitter Afh of St 
Chriftopher’s is the fame, but does not feem to know whe- 
ther the Bitter Afh has been found in Jamaica. 
Dr Witittam Wricnat, F.R.S. of London, Edinburgh, tc. 
in his Account of the Medicinal Plants growing in Jamaica™*, 
mentions this tree under the title of Picrania Amara, a new 
genus belonging to the clafs Pentandria Monogynia, and fays it is 
ufed in putrid fevers as an antifeptic, and that lefs of it will do, 
than of the Quafia Amara of Surinam. Dr WricuT was natu- 
rally led to place this tree in the clafs and order he has done, 
from finding hermaphrodite flowers and feeds on the fame tree ; 
at the fame time he remarks, that this tree has a great affinity to 
the genus Quaffia. 
Dr OLAAF SwARTZ examined moft of the plants in Jamaica 
and the other iflands. He probably had feen the fame tree in 
flower and fruit, and in his Prodromus, he ftyles it, “* Quaffia 
“* Excelfa, floribus hermaphroditis sdris paniculatis, foliis im- 
“ pari-pinnatis, foliolis oppofitis petiolatis, petiolo nudo,”’ 
No other particular defcription of this tree has yet appeared ; 
and as both bark and wood may be in more general ufe, I 
have taken fome pains to examine this new fpecies, and I hope 
the following account of it will enable the botanift, or any 
other, to find it. I have, however, given a drawing of the 
leaves and frudtification, which will put every thing out of 
doubt. 
The Quaffia Polygama is a very common tree in moft of our 
woodlands. It is beautiful, tall and ftately. I have meafured’ 
one, which was 100 feet in length, and ten feet in circumfe- 
rence;, 
* London Medical Journal, part IIT, for 1787. 
