308 TRANSPLANTATION OF THE PERUVIAN BARK 



The opinion that the Quinquina-trees are found together in woods, 

 growing, as it were, in company, is again, by the experience of Mr. 

 Hasskarlj refuted. They are often scattered^ and sometimes, even in 



Q 



Can the contradiction 



which, in these statements; exists between the earlier and present writers, 

 be explained by the destruction of the woods, which has taken place 

 during the last half century ? 



Arrived in the province of Caraboya, he cherished the hope that he 

 should there find the Quinquina-trees still full of fruit and seed, and 

 that from information given him. This hope was disappointed, as the 

 seeds were already scattered. 



In the latter end of September, 1853, Mr. Hasskarl arrived at Cuzco, 

 the old Inca town. Passing from there to Sandia, the capital of the 

 district of that name, where alone the Quinquina, as far as Peru is con- 

 cerned, is collected, he put himself in connection wdth some old and 

 experienced bark collectors {Cascarilleros practicos), to obtain informa- 

 tion, and to make inquiry concerning the places where the Quinquina- 

 trees grow. Thus he was enabled to see a great number and variety 

 of the Quinquina species, but it was his misfortune to discover that he 

 had come too late to collect seeds, for the fruits remaining on the trees 

 had already dropped their seeds. It may not be improper to remark 

 here that the Quinquina seed is extremely fine and light, and surrounded 



by an exquisitely fine membrane, so that it is easily blown away and 



lost, but also, that to this cause may be traced the wonderful extent of 

 the Quinquina-trees in South America. 



It was even less possible at that time to obtain young plants of 

 those trees. In Caraboya however the trees were very scarce, much 

 scattered, and thus rare, as the Cascarilleros had grubbed up all the old 

 or seed-bearing trees. It is therefore often necessary to cross the great 

 river, and thus to go over the boundary of the country of the wild In- 

 dians, with a faint hope of success, to look for these trees, and to find 

 scattered here and there in the woods, young plants that have grown up 

 from seeds. 



In this manner, being disappointed in his expectation that his jour- 

 ney would be finished with 1853, he determined to return to Lima, 

 and pass the rainy season there till April i however he changed this 

 place, where, in the meantime, the yellow fever had broken out in a 

 severe form, for Chili, where a cooler climate seemed to promise the 



