Adulteration—The fruit of Feronia Elephantum Correa, which has a considerable external resemblance to that of Ægle Marmelos and is called by Europeans Wood Apple, is sometimes supplied in India for bael. It may be easily distinguished: it is one-celled with a large five-lobed cavity (instead of 10 to 15 cells) filled with numerous seeds. The tree has pinnate leaves with 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets. We have seen Pomegranate Peel offered as Indian Bael.[513]
SIMARUBEÆ.
LIGNUM QUASSIÆ.
Quassia, Quassia Wood, Bitter Wood; F. Bois de Quassia de la Jamaïque, Bois amer; G. Jamaica Quassiaholz.
Botanical Origin—Picræna excelsa Lindl. (Quassia excelsa Swartz, Simaruba excelsa DC., Picrasma excelsa Planchon), a tree 50 to 60 feet in height, somewhat resembling an ash and having inconspicuous greenish flowers and black shining drupes the size of a pea. It is common on the plains and lower mountains of Jamaica, and is also found in the islands of Antigua and St. Vincent. It is called in the West Indies Bitter Wood or Bitter Ash.
History—Quassia wood was introduced into Europe about the middle of the last century. It was derived from Quassia amara L., a shrub or small tree with handsome crimson flowers, belonging to the same order, native of Panama, Venezuela, Guiana, and Northern Brazil. It was subsequently found that the Bitter Wood of Jamaica which Swartz and other botanists referred to the same genus, possessed similar properties, and as it was obtainable of much larger size, it has since the end of the last century been generally preferred. The wood of Q. amara, called Surinam Quassia, is however still used in France and Germany.[514]
The first to give a good account of Jamaica quassia was John Lindsay,[515] a medical practitioner of the island, who writing in 1791 described the tree as long known not only for its excellent timber, but also as a useful medicine in putrid fevers and fluxes. He adds that the bark is exported to England in considerable quantity—“for the purposes of the brewers of ale and porter.”
Quassia, defined as the wood, bark, and root of Q. amara L., was introduced into the London Pharmacopœia of 1788; in the edition of 1809, it was superseded by the wood of Picræna excelsa. In the stock-book of a London druggist (J. Gurney Bevan, of Plough Court, Lombard Street) we find it first noticed in 1781 (as rasuræ), when it was reckoned as having cost 4s. 2d. per lb.
Description—The quassia wood of commerce consists of pieces of the stem and larger branches, some feet in length, and often as thick as a man’s thigh. It is covered with bark externally of a dusky grey or blackish hue, white and fibrous within, which it is customary to strip off and reject. The wood, which is of a very light yellowish tint, is tough and strong, but splits easily. In transverse section it exhibits numerous fine close medullary rays, which intersect the rather obscure and irregular rings resembling those of annual growth of our indigenous woody stems. The centre is occupied by a cylinder of pith of minute size. In a longitudinal section, whether tangential or radial, the wood appears transversely striated by reason of the small vertical height of the medullary rays.
The wood often exhibits certain blackish markings due to the mycelium of a fungus; they have sometimes the aspect of delicate patterns, and at others appear as large dark patches.