CUSSO, BANKESIA ABYSSINICA.
The Cusso is one of the most beautiful trees, as also one of the most useful. It is an inhabitant of the high country of Abyssinia, and indigenous there; I never saw it in the Kolla, nor in Arabia, nor in any other part of Asia or Africa. It is an instance of the wisdom of providence, that this tree does not extend beyond the limits of the disease of which it was intended to be the medicine or cure.
The Abyssinians of both sexes, and at all ages, are troubled with a terrible disease, which custom however has enabled them to bear with a kind of indifference. Every individual, once a month, evacuates a large quantity of worms; these are not the tape worm, or those that trouble children, but they are the sort of worm called Ascarides, and the method of promoting these evacuations, is by infusing a handful of dry Cusso flowers in about two English quarts of bouza, or the beer they make from teff; after it has been steeped all night, the next morning it is fit for use. During the time the patient is taking the Cusso, he makes a point of being invisible to all his friends, and continues at home from morning till night. Such too was the custom of the Egyptians upon taking a particular medicine. It is alledged that the want of this drug is the reason why the Abyssinians do not travel, or if they do, most of them are short-lived.
The seed of this is very small, more so than the semen santonicum, which seems to come from a species of worm-wood. Like it the Cusso sheds its seed very easily; from this circumstance, and its smallness, no great quantity of the seed is gathered, and therefore the flower is often substituted. It is bitter, but not nearly so much as the semen santonicum.
The Cusso grows seldom above twenty feet high, very rarely straight, generally crooked or inclined. It is planted always near churches, among the cedars which surround them, for the use of the town or village. Its leaf is about 2¼ inches long, divided into two by a strong rib. The two divisions, however, are not equal, the upper being longer and broader than the lower; it is a deep unvarnished green, exceedingly pleasant to the eye, the fore part covered with soft hair or down. It is very much indented, more so than a nettle-leaf, which in some measure it resembles, only is narrower and longer.
These leaves grow two and two upon a branch; between each two are the rudiments of two pair of young ones, prepared to supply the others when they fall off, but they are terminated at last with a single leaf at the point. The end of this stalk is broad and strong, like that of a palm-branch. It is not solid like the gerid of the date-tree, but opens in the part that is without leaves about an inch and a half from the bottom, and out of this aperture proceeds the flower. There is a round stalk bare for about an inch and a quarter, from which proceed crooked branches, to the end of which are attached single flowers; the stalk that carries these proceeds out of every crook, or geniculation; the whole cluster of flowers has very much the shape of a cluster of grapes, and the stalks upon which it is supported very much the stalk of the grape; a very few small leaves are scattered through the cluster of flowers.
Cusso or Banksia Abissinica
London. Published Dec.r 1.st 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.
Flower of the Banksia
Abissinica.
London Publish’d Dec.r 1.st 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.
The coral itself is of a greenish colour, tinged with purple; when fully blown, it is altogether of a deep red or purple; the flower is white, and consists of five petals, in the midst is a short pistil with a round head, surrounded by eight stamina of the same form, loaded with yellow farina. The cup consists of five petals, which much resemble another flower; they are rounded at the top, and nearly of an equal breadth every way.
The bark of the tree is smooth, of a yellowish white, interspersed with brown streaks which pass through the whole body of the tree. It is not firm or hard, but rather stringy and reedy. On the upper part, before the first branch of leaves set out, are rings round the trunk, of small filaments, of the consistence of horse hair; these are generally fourteen or sixteen in number, and are a very remarkable characteristic belonging to this tree.
As the figure of this plant is true and exact beyond all manner of exception, I cannot but think it may be found in latitudes 11 or 12° north in the West Indies or America; and having been found a gentle, safe, and efficacious medicine in Abyssinia, it is not doubted but the superior skill of our physicians would turn it to the advantage of mankind in general, when used here in Europe. In consequence of the established prerogatives of discoverers, I have named this beautiful and useful tree after Sir Joseph Banks, President of the royal Society.