Dr. Baillon has just presented the Horticultural Society of Paris with a specimen of Quassia excelsa, a very rare tree, and at present, perhaps, the only one in Europe. The history of this solitary individual is curious; it was reared from seed in 1868 by the late Dr. Bardlet Deschamps, who gave it to the garden of the Faculty of Medicine; and it is highly probable that the seeds came from Martinique under the name of Bittera febrifuga. Hence it was not easy to determine the real nature of the young plant, its only characteristic being the extreme bitterness of all its parts, the leaves especially. As it was supposed to require great warmth, it was kept in a hot-house, where it got on very poorly, until a Prussian shell fell into the place (January 20th, 1871). The following night being excessively cold (it may be remembered that the winter of that year was one of the severest on record), all the plants cultivated there perished except this. Its terminal bud having been lopped off by one of the splinters of the projectile, it was picked up and examined, when it was found to contain a flower presenting all the characteristics of the family of Rutaceae. The plant was now transferred to an Orangery, where it recovered and throve well; it put forth a quantity of leaves in the following spring, and since then it has been growing and producing female flowers every year, so that, to propagate it, a male specimen has to be found.

It is a common tree in Jamaica, where it attains a height of 60 feet, and goes there by the name of "Bitter Ash." It is exported in logs known in trade as "yellow quassia;" they are made into goblets on the turning-lathe, and these are sold under the well-known name of "bitter cup." The shavings are also much in demand for infusions exceedingly beneficial to weak stomachs. They are used in the manufacture of beer; and, as for the wood itself, it is also made into boxes for preserving furs from moths, which shun such receptacles on account of their bitterness. - The Garden.