QUASSIA. 



Eff. Ch. Calyx of five leaves. Petals five. Neftary of 

 five fcalcs. Drupas five, diftant, two-valvcd, fingle-feeded, 

 placed on a flefliy receptacle. 



1. Q. amara. Bitter Quaffia. Linn. Sp. PI. 553. 

 Siippl. 235. Amoen. Acad. v. 6. 416. t. at page 429. 

 WiUd. II. I. Ait. n. I. Curt. Mag. t. 497. Woodv. 



Med. Bot. t. 77 Flowers all perfeft. Leaves pinnate ; 



leaflets oppofite, feffile ; common llalk jointed, wmged. 

 Flowers racemofe. — Native of Surinam. Introduced in 

 1790, by Mr. Alexander Anderfon, to the (loves at Kew, 

 where it flowers in June and July. Afirub rather than a 

 tree, whofe wood is intenfely bitter. Leaves altern.itc ; of 

 two pair of leaflets, \vith an odd one, all elliptic-lanceolate, 

 pointed, entire, veiny, very fmooth, two or three inches in 

 length, on a linear winged ilalk, abrupt and jointed at 

 the infertion of each pair. C/uJers \ong, drooping one 

 way. Flowers numerous, above an inch long, not much 

 expanded, of a rich fcarlet, as well as their llalks. The 

 younger Linnaeus errs in faying, in the Supplement, tliat 

 the branch figured in Am. Acad, does not belong to tlie 

 flowers. 



This is the true original Quaffia, whofe wood is more 

 powerful than that of the other fpecies ; but being very 

 rare, and of fmall bulk, its place is faid to be ufually fup- 

 plied by Q. excel/a hereafter defcribed. 



2. Q. Simaruba. Wing-leaved Quaffia. Linn. Suppl. 

 234. Willd. n. 2. Ait. n. 2. Woodv. Med. Bot. 

 t. 76. (Simarouba amara ; Aubl. Guian. v. 2. 859. t. 33 I, 

 332.) — Flowers monoecious. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets 

 alternate, not quite feffile ; common ftalk naked. Clufters 

 panicled. — Native of varioiA parts of the Weft Indies, in a 

 fandy foil, flowering in November and December. It was 

 fentto Kew in 1787, by Mr. Alexander Anderfon, but has 

 not bloflbmed there. This is a tall and ftout tree, whofe 

 wood is hard, white, without any peculiar flavour. Leaves 

 alternate, with fix, feven, or eight alternate obovate, rather 

 narrow, entire, ftalked leaflets, two inches long, whitiflt be- 

 neath ; their common ftalk fimple, roundifh. Flowers yel- 

 lowilh-white, much fmaller than the preceding, either mo- 

 noecious, or, as fome fay, dioecious, in branched or panicled 

 clufters. The bark of the root is bitter, and much cele- 

 brated as a cure for the dyfentery. Dr. Wright has given 

 a full hiftory of the plant, with a plate, in the Tranfaftions 

 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii. It is known 

 in Jamaica by the name of Mountain Damfon, Bitter Dam- 

 fon, and Stave-wood. In that ifland, according to Dr. 

 Wright, the male flowers are never found on the fame tree 

 with the female. 



3. Q. excel/a. Lofty Quaffia. Swartz in Stockh. 

 Tranf. for 1788. 302. t. 8. Ind. Occ. v. 2. 742. Willd. 

 n. 3. — Flowers polygamous. Stamens five. Leaves pin- 

 nate ; leaflets oppoiite, ftalked ; common ftalk naked 



Native of rather mountainous woods, in Jamaica and the 

 Caribbean iflands. The Englifti commonly call it bitter 

 wood, or bitter afli. The tree is lofty, with a very ilraight 

 trunk ; the wood whitifti, moderately clofe-grained, very 

 bitter ; frequently fold by the druggifts for the true Quajfm 

 amara, and found ufefiil in intermittent fevers, debility of 

 the ftomach, worms, dropiy, and chlorofis. It is alfo ufed 

 for making cabinets, for preferving infefts, or other natural 

 curiofities ; this wood being fuppofed inacceffible to worms. 

 The leaves are larger than the laft, and compofed of from 

 four to fix pair'of oppofite, elliptical, pointed, firm, en- 

 tire, fmooth leaflets, on ftiort partial ihdks. Clujhrs pa- 

 nicled, bearing very numerous, fmall, pale Jlowers, ferae 

 male, the reft hermaphrodite, in the fame clufter. Swartz 

 defcribes the neSary, of five minute villous fcales, contrary 

 to the remark of Willdenow, under his Zivingera, Sp. PI. 



V. 2. 569, where it is faid to be wanting in this fpcciet of 

 Quajfia. The Jlamens are moftly five, rarely four or fix. 

 Cermens from two to tour. 



Quassia ylmar'a, bitter quaffia, in the Materia Medica. 

 The root, bark, and wood of this tree are all comprehended 

 in the catalogues of the Materia Medica ; and it is obferved 

 that the leaves, flowers, See. pofl'efs fimilar qualities. The 

 roots, being perfeftly ligneous, may be medically confi. 

 dered in the fame light with the wood, which is now moft 

 generally employed, and feems to ditier fmm the bark i|, 

 being lefs intenfely bitter ; fo that the latter is thought to 

 be a more powerful medicine. The w'ood is fent to this 

 country from Jamaica and the Caribbean iflands in billets . 

 and is reduced to chips, or rafped by the druggifts. Quaffia 

 has no fenfible odour ; its tafte is that of a pure bitter, more 

 intenfe and durable than that of any other fubllance. It 

 imparts its virtues more completely to watery than to fpi. 

 rituous menftrua, and its infufions are not blackened by the 

 addition of martial vitriol. When the infufion is evaporated 

 to drynefs, it leaves a brownifli-yellow, fomewhat tranf- 

 parcnt, brittle extraft, which has been regarded as a vege- 

 table conftituenty;«^<'nfr/j-, and named the bitter principle. 

 (Edinb. Phil. Tranf. iii. 207.) The infufion is rendered 

 muddy by nitrate of filvcr, and a foft, flaky, yellow preci- 

 pitate is formed ; acetate of lead occafions a copious white 

 precipitate ; and hence it has been inferred that thefe falts 

 are incompatible in formula with it. The watery exfraft is 

 from a fixth to a ninth of the weight of the wood ; the 

 fpirituous about a twenty-fourth. 



Quaffia derived its name, as has been already obferved, 

 from a negro named Quaffi (by Fermin written Coiffi, 

 and by Rolander, Quafs), who employed it with uncom- 

 mon fuccefs as a fecret remedy in the malignant, en- 

 demic fevers, which frequently prevailed at Surinam. In 

 confequence of a valuable confideration, this fecret was 

 difclofed to Daniel Rolander, a Swede, who brought 

 fpecimens of the quaffia-wood to Stockholm in the year 

 1756; and fince that time the effects of this drug have 

 been very generally tried in Europe, and numerous tefti- 

 monies of its efficacy publiflied by many refpedtable authors. 

 Its antifeptic powers have been fubmitted to various trials, 

 from which it has been concluded, that it has confiderable 

 influence in retarding the tendency to putrefaftion ; which, in 

 profefTor Murray's opinion, cannot be attributed to its fen- 

 fible qualities, as it pofleffes no aftringency whatever, nor to 

 its bitternefs, as gentian is much more bitter, but lefs anti- 

 feptic. The medicinal virtues afcribed to quaffia are thofe 

 of a tonic, ftomachic, antifeptic, and febrifuge : it has been 

 found very effectual in reftoring the tone of the ftomach, 

 producing appetite for food, affifting digeftion, expelling 

 flatulency, and removing habitual coftivenefs, produced 

 from debility of the inteftines, and common to a fedentary 

 life. Dr. Lettfom obferves, that in hyfterical atony, to 

 which the female fex is fo prone, the quaffia affords more 

 vigour and relief to the fyftem than the Peruvian bark, efpe- 

 cially when united with the vitriolum album, and ftill more 

 with the aid of fome abforbent. In dyfpepfia, arifing from 

 hard drinking, and alfo in diarrhoeas, he exhibited the quaffia 

 with great fuccefs. Although he does not concur in opinion 

 with Linnxus, who fays, " me quidem judice chinchinam 

 longe fuperat ;" yet he has met with feveral inftances of low 

 remittent and nervous fevers, the fymptoms of which the 

 bark uniformly aggravated, though adminiftered in inter- 

 miffions the moft favourable to its fuccefs, in which quaffia, 

 or fnake-root, was fuccefsfully fubftituted. In fuch cafes, 

 he moftly obferved that there was great congeftion in the he- 

 patic fyftem, and the debility at the fame time difcouraged 

 copious evacuations. And in many fevers, without evident 



remiffions 



