Chapter XXXIX: Appendix: E (3)

4. Karsten's _Medicinal Chinchona Barks of New Granada_.

5. Markham's _Report of a Visit to the Chinchona Forests of Caravaya_.

6. Spruce's _Expedition to procure Seeds and Plants of C. succirubra_.

7. Pritchett's _Report on the Chinchona Plants of Huanuco_.

8. Cross's _Report on the C. Condaminea_.

9. Junghuhn's _Cultivation of the Quina-tree in Java_, 1859.

10. _Botanical Descriptions of Species of Chinchonæ now growing in India._

[503] _Order of the Madras Government_, July 3rd, 1861, No. 1328.

[504] _Secretary to the Government of India, to the Secretary to the Government of Fort St. George_, Dec. 9th, 1861.

[505] I sent a smaller parcel of C. Condaminea seeds in a letter, which arrived first at Ootacamund, in the middle of February. Sixteen days after sowing, twelve seeds were found to have germinated; and early in March 138 seedlings were up, or 30 per cent. of the total number of seeds sown. The large parcel of seeds arrived at Ootacamund on March 4th, and were sown at once. See p. 570.

[506] This is a variety of _C. nitida_.

[507] The chinchona-plantations were commenced in Java in December 1854. On the 31st of December, 1860, they had of

_C. Calisaya_ plants: 5510 in the germinating sheds.
1806 planted out.
1030 living cuttings.
_C. lancifolia_ plants: 38 in the nursery sheds.
42 planted out.
28 living cuttings.
----
Total 8454

Their other species is worthless.--Mr. Fraser's _Report_, p. 2.

[508] "It is the height of improvidence for the collectors to strip off the bark from the roots, thus securing a worthless product at the expense of any possible future renovation of the tree."--_Howard_.

[509] See chap. iii. p. 58.

[510] This is provided for in Java by placing a shed over the young plants.

[511] Mr. McIvor informs me that the winter of 1861-62 was the coldest he has experienced since he came to the Neilgherry hills, a period of fourteen years.

[512] Spruce's _Report_, p. 23.

[513] Howard, _Nueva Quinologia_, Nos. 2 and 7.

[514] Cross's _Report_, p. 5.

[515] See also Weddell's _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_, p. 32.

[516] Mr. Howard thinks that the alkaloids are formed in the barks, by a reaction between ammonia and chincho-tannic acid. The alkaloids are pure in the bark of the branches, somewhat less so in that of the trunk, and most impure in that of the roots.--_Microscopic Observations_, p. 2.

[517] Howard.

[518] Spruce's _Report_, p. 83.

[519] Ibid., p. 27. See also _Karsten_, p. 20.

[520] _Karsten_, p. 20.

[521] Spruce's _Report_, p. 23.

[522] Lindley's _Theory and Practice of Horticulture_, p. 70.

[523] In quills from large branches there is more alkaloid than in the smaller branches: in the bark of the trunk the proportion is still further increased, but this diminishes in quantity and deteriorates in quality in the bark of the roots.--_Howard._

[524] Mr. McIvor reports the thickness of the bark of some of the young plants at Ootacamund to be nearly a quarter of an inch. The bark of quills of _C. Calisaya_ given me by Mr. Howard, as samples from a lot on sale, is only one-eighth of an inch in thickness.

[525] The only reason why the value of quill-bark is much less than that of _tabla_-bark is that the former is usually mixed with spurious barks. Otherwise the value of quill-bark would only be about threepence per lb. less than _tabla_-bark.

[526] Cinnamon is one of the plants which, like the chinchonæ, are cultivated solely for their bark. Mr. Thwaites, the Director of the Botanical Gardens in Ceylon, has supplied me with a few particulars respecting the cultivation of cinnamon. The young shoots are peeled twice during the year, at a particular period of growth, when the bark comes off readily. This time is known at once by the peelers, from the appearance of the young shoots, and the process of peeling is then a very expeditious one, with practised hands. Young plants are raised from seeds in nurseries, and planted six feet apart, when they are a foot or eighteen inches long. They will commonly bear peeling in three or four years after being transplanted, if in a favourable locality and properly attended to. The roots are earthed up frequently, to keep the soil loose and free from weeds. In 1858, 750,744 lbs. of cinnamon were exported from Ceylon, worth 37,537_l._ There are forty-nine cinnamon-gardens in the island.

[527] Mr. McIvor observes that the leaves of all the chinchona-plants at Ootacamund are exceedingly bitter to the taste, and he suggests that these leaves, which naturally fall off the trees in succession, may be turned to account by being imported to England as a substitute for hops in the manufacture of beer. They would no doubt prove a healthy ingredient in beer, but it remains to be proved whether their bitter would preserve it as well as hops.

[528] "Attacked with violent tertian ague, and without any medicine, in Pampa-yacu, I made use of the green bark direct from the chinchona-tree, which I peeled from one growing a few hundred steps distant; and although, in consequence of unavoidable exposure in the rainy season, and the very great exhaustion after eight months' wild forest life, the disease returned on three occasions, it was each time conquered within a week. The very unpleasant additional effect, in this case, of the green bark, of producing obstinate obstructions, demands consideration. It might be well obviated by a plentiful addition of Epsom salts to the infusion. After the first dose of this fresh and unadulterated remedy, a sensation of general well-being is felt, and after recovery, on the first excursion, one approaches the healing trees with warm feelings of gratitude, whose beautiful reddish blossoms appear in such quantities in January, and their round crowns can be distinguished at a distance."--Poeppig, _Reise_, ii. p. 223.

[529] _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_, p. 13.

[530] "From the unfitness of the 'Grey Bark' species for the production of quinine, comparatively small good will be likely to result from their naturalisation."--Howard, _Introduction_, p. xiii.

[531] _Quinine and Antiperiodics in their Therapeutic Relations_, by Dr. J. Macpherson (Calcutta, 1856), p. 27.

[532] There are 477 coffee estates in Ceylon; and in 1858-59 the quantity of coffee exported was 601,595 cwts., valued at 1,488,019_l._ In the same year the revenue was 654,961_l._, expenditure 594,382_l._, value of imports 3,444,889_l._, and of exports 2,328,790_l._

[533] See Mr. Thwaites's _Report_, dated Peradenia, Sept. 28th, 1861.

[534] I have taken the following brief notices of Sikkim, Bhotan, and the Khassya hills, from Dr. Hooker's _Flora Indica_, and _Himalayan Journals_.

[535] _Flora Indica_, i., p. 178.

[536] _Ibid._, i., p. 175.

[537] _Flora Indica_, i., p. 233. _Himalayan Journals_, ii., p. 277.

[538] _Report_ by Dr. Brandis, _Supplement to the Calcutta Gazette_, August 31st, 1861, No. 55, p. 467.

[539] _Quinine and Antiperiodics in their Therapeutic Relations_, by Dr. J. Macpherson (Calcutta, 1856).

[540] _Macpherson_, p. 2.

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