304 TRANSPLANTATION OF THE PERUVIAN BATIK 



Stevenson* declares that if tlie Government of America do not take 

 care to preserve the Quinquina-tree, either by forbidding the felling of 

 it, or by obliging the authorities of the provinces to take strong mea- 

 sures to prevent the destruction of the tree, it , is much to be feared 



that this excellent production of the New World will be wholly ex- 

 hausted. 



Weddell, in the Introduction to his ' Histoire Naturelle des Quin- 

 quinas,' says that his attention has been given to all sorts of Quin- 

 quinas. These are his words : — "L'immense accroissement pris par le 

 comraerce des Quinquinas dans ces parties, rendait en quelque sorte 

 necessaire un travail a leur sujet. A une epoque aussi oii la consom- 

 raation de ces ecorces, et surtout de leur principe febrifuge, la Quinine, 

 devient de plus en plus considerable, je crois qu'il peut etre utile 

 d'appelerTattentionsurlesecorces qui un jour devront reus placer la Quin- 

 quina Calysaya, dont I'epuisement devient de plus en plus imminent. 

 Ces especes, si elles sont beaucoup moins riches en principes actifs, nous 

 offrent encore, par leur abondance, quelque securite contre la chance 

 prochaine de nous voir prives du medicament le plus precieux du regne 

 vegetal." 



■ Several Dutch naturalists, whose zeal in the advancement of science 

 for the good of mankind and the glory of their country is above all 

 praise, have, for more than twenty-five years, 'urged upon the Govern- 

 ment, both at home and in India, the transplantation of the Quinquina- 

 tree from South America to Java. Those gentlemen have been Messrs. 

 Bluine, Korthals, Eeinwardt, G. J. Mulder, Miquel, Fromberg, Vrolik, 

 and others. 



It will be superfluous to say that successive Ministers for the Colo- 

 nies have considered these propositions, and all who were officially 



^ it on the subject, have shown their 

 interest in, and their desire for, the accomplishment of this object. 



Some of these naturalists have thought it probable that after some 

 years, if the Quinquina-tree should be exhausted in South America, 

 the culture of it might succeed in Java. Others have thought that 

 neither pains nor money should be spared to transplant from Peru to 

 Java a tree which would grow as luxuriantly there as in America. 



The desirableness of the transplanting was continually kept in re- 

 membrance ; but the Government supposed the thing impracticable. 



* Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America, ii. 60. 



