QUA 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



QUE 



437 



QUAKING GRASS. See Briza. 



Qualea ; a genus of the class Monandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 deeply four-parted ; segments ovate, coriaceous, concave, 

 unequal, the two lower larger, gaping. Corolla : petals two, 

 unequal, inserted into the calix ; upper erect, roundish, emar- 

 ginate, ending at the base in a horn-shaped, short, blunt 

 nectary, prominent between the upper segments of the calix ; 

 lower larger, bending down. Stamina: filamentum one, 

 short, ascending, inserted between the lower prtal and the 

 germen ; antherse oblong, grooved, recurved. Pistil: ger- 

 men globular ; style filiform, ascending, the length of the 

 stamina; stigma blunt. Pericarp : berry one-celled. Seeds: 

 very many, nestling in the pulp. Observe. The corolla has 

 a bilabiate form. The genus is allied to Cucullaria. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Calix: four-parted. Corolla: two-pe- 

 talled. Berry : with many seeds. The species are, 



1. Qualea Rosea. Lower petals blunt ; leaves acuminate. 

 This tree attains the height of sixty feet, and of two feet in 

 diameter: the bark is wrinkled, and the wood reddish and 

 compact: at the top it has large branches, some growing 

 right up, others horizontal, spreading wide in all directions. 

 Panicles terminal ; flowers numerous, two inches long, sweet- 

 scented, white outside, rose-coloured and yellowish within. 

 It grows in the forests of Guiana ; flowering in September. 



2. Qualea Ccerulea. Petals emarginate ; leaves acmte. 

 This is a tree, from sixty to eighty feet in height, and three 

 feet in diameter, with a bark and wood like the former; the 

 flowers are smaller, and have a sweet pleasant odour. Na- 

 tive of Guiana. 



Quassia : a genus of the class Decandria, order Monosy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth five-leaved, 

 very short; leaflets ovate, permanent. Corolla: petals five, 

 lanceolate, elongated, sessile, equal ; nectary of five ovate 

 villose scales, inserted into the interior base of the filamenta. 

 Stamina: filamenta ten, filiform, equal, the length of the 

 corolla; antherae oblong, incumbent. Pistil: receptacle 

 fleshy, orbicular, elevated, wider than the germen ; germen 

 ovate, composed of five; style filiform, the length of the 

 stamina ; stigma five-angled. Pericarp : five, lateral, distant, 

 inserted into the fleshy orbicular receptacle, ovate, obtuse, 

 two-valved. Seeds: solitary, globular. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Calix: five-leaved. Petals: five. Nectary: of 

 five scales. Pericarp: five, distant, each having one seed. 



1. Quassia Amara ; Bitter Quassia. Flowers hermaphro- 

 dite; leaves unequally pinnate; leaflets opposite, sessile; 

 petioles jointed, winged ; flowers in racemes. A small tree, 

 or shrub, with many branches : the wood is white and light, 

 the bark thin, and of a gray colour. The root, wood, bark, 

 and indeed all its parts, are intensely bitter. The wood is 

 thought to be less bitter than the bark ; and is now regarded 

 as the most powerful medicine. Quassia has no sensible 

 odour; its taste is that of a pure bitter, more intense and 

 durable than that of almost any other known substance : it 

 imparts its virtues more completely to watery than spirituous 

 menstrua, and its infusions are not blackened by the addi- 

 tion of martial vitriol. Dr. Cullen mentions it as an excel- 

 lent bitter, and thinks it will do all that a simple bitter can 

 do, but no more: he ascribes the extraordinary commenda- 

 tions which are given it, to the partiality so often shewn to 

 new medicines. It may be given in infusion, or in pills 

 made from the watery extract ; the former is generally pre- 

 ferred, in the proportion of three or four drachms of the 

 wood to twelve ounces of water. Quassia derived its name 

 from a negro, named Quassi, or Coissi, who is said to hare 

 employed it with uncommon success as a secret remedy in 



malignant endemic fevers, which frequently .prevailed at Su- 

 rinam. For a valuable consideration, this secret was dis- 

 closed to Daniel Rolander, a Swede, who brought specimens 

 of the wood to Stockholm, in the year 1756; and since that 

 time, the effects of this drug have been generally tried in Eu- 

 rope. The medicinal qualities ascribed to Quassia, are those 

 of a tonic, stomachic, antiseptic febrifuge. The tree produc- 

 ing it is a native of South America, particularly of Surinam ; 

 and also of some of the West India islands. 



2. Quassia Simaruba ; Wing-leaved Quassia. Flowers mo- 

 noscous ; leaves abruptly pinnate ; leaflets alternate, subpe- 

 tioled ; petiole naked ; flowers in panicles. This tree grows 

 to a considerable height and thickness, with alternate spread- 

 ing branches. It is known in Jamaica by the names of 

 Mountain Damson, Bitter Damson, and Stave-wood. In the 

 beginning of the last century, an epidemic flux, which pre- 

 vailed very generally iri France, resisted all the medicines 

 usually employed in such cases; under these circumstances, 

 recourse was had to the bark of this plant, which proved 

 remarkably efficacious, and first established its medicinal 

 character in Europe. The drug called Simaruba is the bark 

 of the roots of this tree, which is rough, scaly, and waited ; 

 the inside, when fresh, is a full yellow, but when dry paler: 

 it has little smell ; and the taste is bitter, but not disagree- 

 able. Macerated in water, or in rectified spirit, it quickly 

 impregnates them with its bitterness, and with a yellow tinc- 

 ture: the cold infusion in water is rather stronger in taste 

 than the decoction ; which last grows turbid, and of a red- 

 dish brown as it cools. Dr. Wright says, most authors who 

 have written on this drug agree, that in fluxes it restores the 

 lost tone of the intestines, allays their spasmodic motions, 

 promotes the secretions by urine and perspiration, removes 

 the lowness of spirits attending dysenteries, and disposes the 

 patient to sleep ; the gripes and tenesmus are taken orT, and 

 the stools are changed to their natural colour and consist- 

 ence. In a moderate dose it occasions no disturbance nor 

 uneasiness, but in large doses produces sickness at the sto- 

 mach and vomiting. He recommends two drachms of the 

 bark to be boiled in twenty-four ounces of water until only 

 twehve remain ; the decoction is then to be strained, and 

 divided into three equal parts, the whole of which is to be 

 taken in twenty-four hours ; and when the stomach is 1'ecoYi- 

 cjled to this medicine, the quantity of the bark mafy be 

 increased to three drachms. To this decoction some join 

 aromatics, others a few drops of laudanum to each dose. 

 Modern physicians have generally found this medicine suc- 

 cessful only in the third stage of a dysentery without fever, 

 where the stomach is uninjured, and where the gripes and 

 tenesmus are only continued by a weakness in the bowels. 

 Dr. Cullen says, he cannot perceive any thing in this bark 

 but that of a simple bitter; and observes, that the virtues 

 ascribed to it in dysentery have not been confirmed by his 

 experience, or that of other practitioners in Scotland : indeed, 

 he found an irifusion of Chamouiile flowers a more useful 

 remedy. -Native of South America, and of most islands in 

 the West Indies. 



3. Quassia Excelsa; Lofty Qi/nssin. Flowers polygamous, 

 five-strimined, panicled ; leaves unequally pinnate; leaflets 

 opposite, petioled ; petiole naked. A lofty tree, with a 

 straight trunk. The English call it bitter wood, or bitter 

 ash ; and it is frequently sold for the true Quassia. Native 

 of Jamaica and the Caribbean islands. 



Queen's Gillijlmi-ers. See Hesperis. 

 Queen of the Meadows. See Spiraa. 

 Qtiercits; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Polyandria. 

 GE.NIUUC CHARACTER. Male Flowers. Calix: ament 



