Quillaja
(from the Chilian name, Quillai or Cullay). SYN. Smegmadermos. ORD. Rosaceae. A small genus (three or four species) of very glabrous, greenhouse, evergreen trees, some remarkable in possessing a soap-like bark; they are natives of South Brazil, Chili, and Peru. Flowers rather large, tomentose; lateral ones male, central ones purplish; calyx coriaceous, persistent, five-lobed, valvate; petals five, small, sessile, spathulate; pedicels bibracteolate; peduncles axillary and terminal, three to five-flowered. Leaves scattered, petiolate, simple, thickly coriaceous, almost entire, veined. The bark of the under-mentioned species contains a considerable amount of carbonate of lime and other mineral substances, also saponine, a vegetable-soap principle, on which account it is used for washing and cleaning clothes, &c. For culture, see Kageneckia.
Q. saponaria (Soapwort). Quillai, or Soap Bark-tree. fl. white, usually terminal, either solitary or from three to five on a stalk. April. l. oval, mostly toothed, smooth, shining, short-stalked. h. 50ft. to 60ft. Chili, 1832. (R. H. 1873, 254.)