QUERCITRON. 
century, but is still rare in collections. It is a 
very ornamental plant, of naturally about 20 
feet in height, and carries red flowers in June 
and July; and, in common with most or all of 
the other plants of the simaruba order, it is dis- 
tinguished for a powerful medicinal bitterness, 
of great service in dyspepsy, nervous irritability, 
intermittent fever, dysentery, and kindred dis- 
eases. But the two species which furnish the 
quassia wood and quassia bark of our pharmaco- 
peias, though formerly ranked as true quassias, 
are assigned by modern botanists to the genus 
simaruba. See the article SmmaruBa. The pecu- 
liar principle of quassia wood, or the dry, brit- 
tle, semitransparent, brownish-yellow substance 
which is left by the evaporation of an alcoholic 
or watery infusion of it, has been called quassine. 
QUEEN-BEE. See Ben. 
QUEEN OF THE MEADOW. See Mzapow- 
SWEET. 
QUERCITRON, — botanically Quercus Tinc- 
toria. A hardy, deciduous, economical tree, of 
the oak genus. It is a native of North America, 
and was introduced to Britain in 1739. It ranks 
among the red American oaks, and has naturally 
a height of about 70 feet. Its leaves are sinuate, 
and have mucronate lobes; and its inflorescence 
appears in May. Its timber possesses consider- 
able economical value, but is inferior to that of 
the common oak. Its bark is a well-known and 
important dye-stuff; and is much employed in 
dyeing wool, silk, and paper hangings; and is said 
by Dr. Bancroft, who introduced it to notice, to be 
equal in power to ten times its weight of woad. 
With a basis of alumina, a decoction of the bark 
gives a bright yellow dye; with oxide of tin, it 
gives a variety of tints, from pale lemon to deep 
orange; and with oxide of iron, it gives a drab 
colour. The cellular integument of the bark is 
what contains the colouring matter. 
QUERCUS. See Oak, Kermes Oak, Cork- 
Tree, Inex, and QuERCITRON. 
QUERN. A hand-mill, comprising two stones, 
for the grinding of corn in small quantities. It is 
very ancient, and of very simple structure; yet 
it is still used in Shetland and some other remote 
districts of Britain. 
QUEY. A young female of the ox species,—in- 
termediate in age between a she-calf and a heifer. 
QUICKBEAM. See Aso (Mounraty). 
_ QUICKEN-TREE. See Asn (Mounratn). 
QUICK-LIME. See Lime, 
QUICKSAND. See Founpartons. 
QUICKS. See Acrosris and Quickser Heper. 
QUICKSET HEDGE. A fence of living plants, 
as distinguished from a dead hedge,—and espe- 
cially a fence of hawthorn as distinguished from 
all less resistive fences. The latter also bears 
the name of quicks. See the articles Frnce, 
Hepes, and HawrHorn. 
QUICKSILVER. See Mercury. 
QUIDDING. A temporary cause of unsound- 
ness in a horse,—tending to render him incapa- 
QUINCE. 9) 
ble of active work. It consists in the rejection of 
his hay in a rolled-up form like a quid of tobacco ; 
and arises immediately from inability to masti- 
cate the hay, and remotely from a defect in the 
grinders, or from considerable tenderness of the 
mouth and pharynx. , 
QUILLS. The hard and strong feathers of 
geese, swans, turkeys, crows, ostriches, and some 
other birds. They are denominated according 
to their natural numerical order in the wing; 
and those called seconds and thirds have the 
largest and roundest barrels, and are the best 
for writing. Prepared or clarified quills are 
comparatively good or bad according to the size 
and solidity of their barrels, according to their 
weight, and according to their relative degrees 
or mutual combination of hardness and elasticity. 
Large quantities are annually imported into Bri- 
tain from Holland, Germany, and Russia. Their 
barrel consists of coagulated albumen. See the 
article Fratnurs. The quills of crows are used 
principally for drawing. 
QUILLWORT,—botanically Zsoetes. A small 
genus of curious aquatic plants, of the marsilea- 
ceous division of cryptogams. The marsh spe- 
cies, or European quillwort, or Merlin’s grass, 
Isoetes palustris, inhabits the shallow parts of 
limpid upland lakes in the mountainous districts 
of Britain. It has a perennial tuberous root, and 
sends down from it long, simple, and somewhat 
hairy fibres perpendicularly into the ground, and 
has no stem, and comprises a tuft of many quad- 
rangular awl-shaped fronds of from 3 to 9 inches 
in height, and carries a brown inflorescence from 
May till October. Fishes are said to feed and 
fatten on it. 
QUINA. See Prruvran Bark. 
QUINCE,—Cydonia. A small genus of hardy, 
deciduous, fruit-shrubs and fruit-trees, of the 
rose-tree order. Three species are in cultiva- 
tion; but the common one of these, Cydonia wul- 
garis, 13 by far the most interesting. It has 
crooked branches, and a spreading, bushy head. 
It is indigenous to Germany and the south of 
Europe; and it appears first to have attracted 
notice in the city of Cydon, in Crete or Candia— 
whence its botanical name, Cydonia, The fruit 
is of a fine golden yellow, and more nearly re- 
sembles that of the orange than any other. 
was even more highly esteemed by the Greeks 
and Romans, for preserving, than by us. ‘“ Quin- 
ces,” says Columella, “not only yield pleasure, 
but health.” The quince seldom grows higher 
than fifteen feet, and is usually rather a shrub 
than a tree, Its large white and pale pink blos- 
soms, which appear rather later than those of 
other fruit trees, are quite ornamental; and the 
tree, properly grown, 1s very ornamental when 
laden in October and November with its ripe 
golden fruit. Three chief varieties of it occur in 
gardens,—the apple-shaped, the pear-shaped, and 
the Portugal ; but only the last of these is well 
worthy of cultivation. 
It 
