QUASSIA RHUI3ARD. 643 



The powdered leaves of the Eupatorium glutinosum, under the 

 name of Matico, are used about Quito for stanching blood and 

 healing wounds. A good article on the pharmaceutical and chemi- 

 cal character of matico, by Dr. J. F. Hodges, appeared in the 

 " Proceedings of the Chemical Society of London," in 1845. It 

 is stated, by Dr. Martin, that, like the gunjah, which the 

 East Indians prepare, from the Cannabis Indica, the leaves and 

 flowers of the matico have been long employed by the sensual 

 Indians of the interior of Peru to prepare a drink which they 

 administer to produce a state of aphrodisia. The leaves and 

 flowering tops of the plant are the parts imported and introduced 

 to notice as a styptic, which property seems to depend on their 

 structure and not on their chemical composition. 



QUASSIA. The quassia wood of the pharmacopoeia Avas originally 

 the product of Quassia amara, a tall shrub, never above fifteen 

 feet high, native of Guiana, but also inhabiting Surinam and 

 Colombia. It is a very ornamental plant, and has remarkable 

 pinnate leaves with winged petioles. This wood is well known as 

 one of the most intense bitters, and is considered an effectual 

 remedy in any disorder where pure bitters are required. Surinam 

 quassia is not, however, to be met with now. That sold in the 

 shops is the tough, fibrous, bitter bark of the root of Simaruba 

 {Quassia) excelsa and qfiicinalis, very large forest trees, growing 

 in Cayenne, Jamaica, and other parts of the West India Islands, 

 where they bear the local name of bitter-wood. Its infusion is 

 used as a tonic. 23 tons of bitter-wood were shipped from Mon- 

 tego Bay, Jamaica, in 1851. Quassia acts as a narcotic poison on 

 flies and other insects. Although prohibited by law, it is fre- 

 quently employed by brewers as a substitute for hops. The duty 

 of 8 17s. 6d. per cwt., levied on quassia, is intended to restrict 

 its use for such a purpose. 



EHUBAEB. This most important plant belongs to the genus 

 Rheum. The officinal rhubarb is the root of an undetermined 

 species. There are about thirteen different kinds which are said 

 to yield rhubarb. Lindley enumerates fifteen. I however take 

 Professor Balfour's classification : 



1. Rheum palm-ttum, native of Bucharia, which has perhaps the best title to 

 be considered the true rhubarb-plant, grows spontaneously in the Mongolian 

 empire on the confines of China. 



2. R, undulatum, native of China, which yields much of the French rhubarb. 



3. R. compact urn, native of Tartary, another species yielding French rhubarb, 

 and often cultivated in Britain for its acid petioles. 



4. R. Emodi (Wallich). This species yields a kind of Himalayan rhubarb. 

 Its petioles are much used for their acid properties. 



5. R. Rhaponticum, native of Asia. Used in France and Britain in the same 

 way as the third species. It is much cultivated in the department of Morbihan. 



6. R. hybridum (Murr). Much cultivated in Germany for its root and in 

 Britain for its stalks. 



7. R. Webbianum (Royle). 8. R. Spiceformi (Royle). 9. R. Moorcrofti- 

 anum (Royle). Himalayan species or varieties. 



10. R. crassinervium (Fisch), a Russian species. 



