7 ON THE 
_CINCHONA FORESTS OF SOUTH 
AMERICA. | 
BY A. VON HUMBOLDT. 
SECTION 1. 
Ture present. Essay is written with a view to examine the Cin- 
- chona tree as an object of physical or botanical geography. 
Amongst the numerous writers mentioning the Cinchona, there 
are none but La Condamine, Ruiz, -Pavon, and Zea, who. them- 
selves have observed this beneficial tree upon the South A eri- 
can continent. Only the first of these gives a physical descrip- 
tion of this plant; the others, as well as Jacquin and Swartz, 
who saw the Cinchonz in the West-India Islands, and Vahl and 
Lambert, who occupied themselves with dried specimens, have 
merely treated on the natural history and the botanical diagno- 
sis. During my stay of four years in South America, I had 
oecasion to reside a long time in countries where the Cinchona 
trees are indigenous. M. Bonpland and myself have observed 
them north and south of the equator, in the kingdom of New 
Granada, betwixt Honda and Santa Fe de Bogota, in the pro- 
vince of Popayan, in the corregiment of Loxa,; on the Ama- 
zon river, in the province of Jaen de Bracamoros; and in the 
northerly part of Peru. During our abode in the house of 
Don Jose Celestino Mutis, in Santa Fe, the botanical treasures 
of that great natural philosopher were opened to us. In Spain, 
