PYRUS CYDONIA. 
11 
styles are five, slender, nearly of the length of the filaments, and 
supplied with simple stigmata ; the fruit is of the apple kind, and 
divided at the centre into five membranous cells, containing the 
seeds, which are oblong, angular, pointed at one end, obtuse at the 
other ,; at one side compressed, on the other flat, and covered with a 
brownish pellicle ; the form of the fruit approaches to that of the 
apple or pear, according to the different varieties of the tree from 
which it is produced ; it flowers in May or June. 
Sensible and Medical Properties. The quince has a 
pleasant odour, and a very austere acid taste, partaking at the same 
time somewhat of the flavour of rhubarb stalk. The seeds are 
inodorous and nearly insipid, but when long chewed impart a sUght 
degree of bitterness to the taste ; when boiled they yield much 
mucus, which soon spoils; the mucilage is not altered by sulphate 
of iron. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The expressed juice, taken 
in small quantities, frequently repeated, is said to be cooling, 
restringent and stomachic,* and useful in nausea, vomitings, and 
some kind of alvine fluxes ;t in larger quantiti-es it is said to loosen 
the belly, but we believe it is much better known, and more fre- 
quently used as an ingredient in pies. The seeds readily impart their 
mucilaginous substance to watery liquors; an ounce will render three 
pints of water thick and ropy, like the white of an egg; this 
mucilage, however, will not supply the place of gum arable, as it 
soon spoils, and is precipitated by acids. It has been recommended 
in apthous affections, and excoriations of the mouth and fauces. 
Oft\ The Se^ds. 
Oft". Pp. Decoct. Cydoni , L. 
* We are told by Dr. Ainslie, that the Persians and Arabians place the juice of the 
fruit, when soar, amongst their stomachics, and also the apples when fried. A decoction 
of the seed is prescribed by the Mahometan practitioners, as a demulcent in gonorrhoea, 
and tenesmus. — Vide Materia Indica, vol. i. p. 332. 
+ Lewis's Materia Medica, p. 267. 
