25 
- Loxa, in some department _ connected with the pesling of 
barks, on his return to Spain, across Popayan to Santa Fe 
de Bogota. This observing traveller was the upper Mint Di- 
rector (Superintendente general de moneda de Santa Fe) Don 
Miguel de Santistevan, who, without any botanical knowledge, 
discovered physiognomically, that is to say, by mere habitus, 
the Cinchona trees. from Loxa up to 21° N, lat. In a memo- 
rial concerning the royal administration of the whole trade of 
Cinchona bark (Estanco de Cascarilla) which in 1753 he ad- 
dressed to the viceroy Marquis de Villar, he expressly says that 
he had found Cinchona trees not only betwixt Loxa and Quito, 
for instance, easterly from Cuenca near the villages Paute and 
Gualasco, westerly 1 rom Riobamba om the declivity of the Chim- 
borazo near Angas, and on the Cuesta. de S. Antonio, but also 
_ betwixt Quito. ang eats: Fes an_all Bien where the gpg} is 
of an equi ual height with Loxa, consequently 80 ne 
nice: pie even according to the earlier ones of ee Com 
damine,* is certainly too low by at least 250 toises ; but the acute 
observation, respecting the mean height in which the Cinchona — 
va ys met with on the mountainous declivity, is the 
ore striking, since even learned philosophers at that time paid 
attention to the geography of plants, or to the height of their 
‘situation. It is also to be observed, that although M. Santis- 
tevan, according to the ‘manuscript accounts. which, Tpr »cured of 
him, speaks generally of Cinch ma trees betwix nd} 
Fe, yet we can perceive from his enumerat on of | Pericolar places, 
é that he discovered. this precious produce only.in the valley of 
orth of Pasto, in the forests of Beruccos, and in 
the eGaty 0 of Popayan™ near Guanacas, the dangerous pass of 
* Voyage de la Riviére de l’Amazoiue, p, 25, : iis 
+ H 3 
