QUI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



QUI 



443 





less.) Seed: single. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five- 

 leaved. Corolla: none. Capsule: one-celled. Seed: one. 

 The species are, 



1. Queria Hispanica. Flowers in clusters. A diminutive 

 hardy annual, flowering most part of the summer; colour of 

 the plant whitish. Native of Spain. 



2. Queria Canadensis. Flowers solitary ; stem dicboto- 

 mous. Root fibrous, perennial ; seed reniform-globular, very 

 smooth, shining, dark ; leaves opposite, lanceolate, ovate, 

 quite entire, with dusky spots scattered over them on each 

 side; stem solitary, a span high, round, jointed, smooth, 

 reddish, erect, an leafy. Native of dry lime-stone hills from 

 New York to Kentucky, flowering from June to August. 



3. Queria Trichotoma. Flowers in racemes ; stem tricho- 

 tomous. Native of Japan. 



Quick. See Triticvm. 



Quick generally means a live hedge, of whatever plants 

 composed ; in contradistinction to that which is formed of 

 stakes, &c. and therefore called a dead one. It more particu- 

 larly applies to the Hawthorn, or Whitethorn, (see Cratagus 

 Oxycantha,) young plants, or sets of which, are sold under 

 this name by the nursery-gardeners, for the purpose of plant- 

 ing to form live hedges. In choosing these sets, prefer those 

 out of the nursery, because such plants as are taken out of 

 the wood seldom have good roots. It would indeed be better 

 still,, to sow the seeds or haws in the place where the hedge 

 is wanted, as the plants would form a much stronger and 

 more durable fence than after having undergone transplant- 

 ation. This practice would be generally resorted to, but 

 it is condemned as tedious ; though, if the haws were only 

 buried a year in the ground to prepare them for vegetation 

 before sowing, they would form a good fence much sooner 

 than is imagined. In some trials of this kind, plants that 

 have remained where they came up from seed, have in five 

 or six years overtaken those which were transplanted at two 

 years old, when the former were only just sown. When the 

 hedges are raised from seed, it will not be amiss to mix the 

 Holly berries with the haws, and they also should be one 

 year previously buried to prepare them, so that then both 

 will come up together in the following spring ; and this mix- 

 ture, of Holly with the Quick, will not only have a beautiful 

 appearance in the winter, but will also thicken the hedge at 

 the bottom, and make it the better fence. But where the 

 hedge is to be planted, the sets should not be more than three 

 years old from the haws ; for when they are oid.er, their roots 

 will be hard and woody : and as they are commonly trimmed 

 off before the sets are planted, so they very often miscarry, 

 and such of them as do live, will not make such good pro- 

 gress as younger plants, nor are they so durable; for these 

 plants will not bear transplanting so well at many others, 

 especially when they have stood long in the seed-bed unre- 

 moved. Quick does well on good stong land ; but on dry, 

 gravelly, or poor soils, it seldom prospers. The reasons of 

 this are : first, that the sets are placed too low or flat on the 

 surface, whence their roots only occupy a little depth of the 

 soil; secondly, when set higher, they are generally too near 

 the slope of the bank, and do not receive the benefit of the 

 rain. , To remedy these inconveniences, two lines may be 

 marked out, twelve feet from each other; from three feet 

 within each line the upper part of the soil is to be taken, and 

 cast into the centre of the space, so as to form a flat bed 

 three feet broad, in the middle of which the Quicks are to 

 be planted ; the remaining eighteen inches on each side is 

 to be filled up with earth, gravel, or sand, taken out of the 

 ditches : this extends the bed to five feet, allowing si* inches 

 fa: the slope of the bank : the Quicks planted in this body 

 voi, ii. 103. 



of soil will find sufficient nourishment before the tap-root 

 reaches the barren gravel below ; and the earth thus placed, 

 especially if the bed be laid concave, or sloping a little in 

 the middle, will retain sufficient moisture to nourish the 

 plants, and they will soon form a fence. By raising the bank 

 on each side at pleasure, the plants may be defended from 

 sharp winds or the sea air. The space required is no great 

 object on low-priced land, and a good thriving hedge is an 

 ample compensation. On such dry soils, Furze, called also 

 Gorse and Whins, is propagated easily from seed, grows fast, 

 and, when sown in a triple row, makes a very formidable 

 fence; but as it is liable to be completely cut down by a 

 severe winter, no dependence can be placed on it, except as 

 a temporary defence, during the minority of the Whitethorn. 

 The nursing of young Quick hedges, by proper training and 

 weeding, has been greatly neglected. The luxuriant side- 

 shoots should be taken off, which will promote the upright 

 growth of the plant, by training it to a single stem. One 

 advantage of this method is, that of rearing every plant with 

 a degree of certainty, the tops being in this operation attended 

 to as well as the stems ; those of the stronger plants being 

 lessened, to give head-room to the weaker. Another great 

 advantage, especially on a sheep-farm, is that of getting the 

 young plants out of harm's way. Sheep are great enemies to 

 young Quick, and every expedient should be employed to 

 defend it from them for three or four years ; after which they 

 will, by the above management, rise out of the reach of those 

 animals. The pruning should be performed in winter or 

 spring, while the sap is down. Young Quick hedges should 

 be kept constantly free from weeds, and, if foul, should be 

 hoed and weeded by hand twice every year; otherwise, if 

 the weeds be numerous and strong enough to outgrow the 

 shoots, the latter will be greatly injured. Root or perennial 

 hedge weeds should be carefully eradicated ; as, the Common 

 Creeping Thistle, Docks, Nettles, Bindweeds, and Fern; in 

 moist situations, the Meadow Sweet and Willow Herbs, but 

 especially the Persicarias, which are almost certain suffocation 

 to weak plants in the first and second years, if not removed 

 by hand. Grasses in general may be destroyed by^the hoe, 

 but scarcely any means can entirely free young hedges from 

 Quick-grass or Couch ; which ought therefore at alnwst any 

 cost to be destroyed before the young hedge is planted. 

 Cleavers, otherwise called Hariff, and other climbing plants, 

 are a burden to the taller and more upright shoots. Biennial 

 and annual weeds, such as Sowthistles, the Hawkweed, and 

 several other umbelliferous plants, provincially called Keksies, 

 also Charlock, and several of the Wild Vetches, with a vari- 

 ety of small weeds, which rob the plants of their nourish- 

 ment, all ought to be cut off with the hoe as often as they 

 rise, or at least before they come to seed. Great care is 

 requisite in weeding young hedge-shoots : they are very brit- 

 tle, and roughness in handling is very liable to break them 

 off at the stub. They ought not to be pulled aside nor 

 weeded overhand ; but the weeds should be drawn out at the 

 bottom, by putting the hand ar fingers gently in between the 

 stubs. For further particulars, see the articles Fences and 

 Hedyes. 



Quicken Tree. See Sorbus Aucuparia. 



Qitillwort. See Isoeles. 



Quince Tree. See Pyrus Cydonia. 



Quincluunala ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mo- 

 nogynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth superior, 

 of one leaf, in four deep, ovate, unequal segments ; one 

 larger than the rest. Corolla: of one petal; tube funnel- 

 shaped, much longer than the calix, quadrangular, curved ; 

 limb in five lanceolate, acute, spreading segments. Stamina: 

 5 U 



