NOUN
- handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark
- West Indian tree yielding the drug Jamaica quassia
- medium to large tree of tropical North and South America having odd-pinnate leaves and long panicles of small pale yellow flowers followed by scarlet fruits
How To Use bitterwood In A Sentence
- It was a favorite saying of his that more patients would be cured by climbing a bitterwood tree, than by drinking a disgusting decoction of its leaves. Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life.
