210 
BARK OF QUILLAIA SAPONARIA. 
The trunk of ' the Quillaia saponaria is strait and somewhat 
elevated; it is covered with a thick bark of an ashen gray ; 
near the summit, it is divided into two or three branches. Its 
leaves are much like those of the green oak, its flowers are 
similar, as regards the stamina, but the seeds are enclosed in 
a capsule with four cells, each containing a seed.* 
*The generic description given by Molina, but which has not been 
appended to this notice by the authors, is inaccurate, hence some 
little difficulty has arisen with respect to the tree, in the compilation of 
systematic works. Ruiz and Pavon, the authors of the Flora Peruviana 
and Prodromus Florae Peruviana et Chilensis, have detailed its charac- 
teristics under the name of Smegmadermos cmar ginata. They state 
that the plant is the same 4 as that referred to in the work of Molina. 
That the description given by him is erroneous, is admitted by his 
translator and editor, M. Gruvel, who says, ''I am ignorant, from the 
description given by the author, of what tree he speaks, but 1 have seen 
the fruit of the quillai of Chili, and which has been given to me under-the 
name of Cortex saponarius, brought by M. Dombey. Now this fruit is 
composed of five capsules, disposed in a star-like form in a common calyx; 
each capsule is unilocular, and contains several seeds winged at the 
end, &c." De Candolle, in his Prodromus Plantarum, has admitted the 
species of Ruiz and Pavon, and has given to it the name of Quillaia smeg- 
madermos, at the same time that he has introduced the plant of Molina 
as of doubtful exsistence under the name of Q. saponaria? This bota- 
nist had seen specimens but of one species, which alone by the authors of 
the Flor. Peruv. is asserted to exist. In a collection of plants presented 
to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia by Dr, Styles, for- 
merly a resident of Chili, is contained the species which maybe regarded 
as the true one of De Candolle, as it agrees in all particulars with[the ac- 
count given by this compiler, and with that of Ruiz and Pavon, The fol- 
lowing is the description : 
Quillaia smegmadermos, Nat. Fam. Rosacex, Class Dioica, Order De- 
candria. De Cand. 
Generic characters. — Flowers polygamous by abortion ; calyx five-cleft, 
persistent, segments ovate acute, before expansion valvate ; corol. pe- 
tals five, subspathulate, narrow, spreading, hardly longer than the calyx, 
inserted upon its divisions. Nectary, disk flat, star-shaped, covering the 
base of the calyx, emarginate and shining ; stamens ten ; filaments erect, 
exterior five emarginately inserted upon the nectary, interior five 
inserted below the disk; anthers in the female flowers sterile, in 
the male ovate, bilocular, and dehiscent longitudinally. Pistil, germs 
five, oblong ; styles subulate, stigmata capitate ; capsules five, oblong, 
