5 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is reached at Pueblo Nuevo, a small town on one of the eastern branches 

 of the Guayaquil River, about seventy-five miles from this town. A 

 small steam-launch plies between the places. 



The elder cinchona district, Bosque de Loja, was the source of the 

 first barks taken to Europe. It extends from 2 to 5 south, to the 

 boundary-line of Peru, and covers the western slope of the Cordilleras 

 below the timber-line. This district has been worked constantly for 

 over two hundred years, and the quantity of bark it furnishes to the 

 Guayaquil market has fallen off in recent years. 



At Pueblo Nuevo, mules and servants were engaged for the jour- 

 ney to the mountains. Wheeled vehicles are useless, for want of 

 roads, and all transportation is done on the backs of beasts or Indians. 

 Before reaching the highlands, forests of ivory-nut palms with their 

 long, graceful, feather-like branches, and scattered trees of Cinchona 

 magnifolia, a valueless species, are met with. Occasionally we found 

 clearings, with extensive haciendas of cacao, coffee, sugar-cane, and 

 anatto. The farther we got into the higher mountains, the more the 

 difficulties and dangers increased, and at last a point was reached 

 where the mules had to be abandoned, and, after continually ascend- 

 ing and descending steep places, a point on one of the great spurs was 

 reached, whence was seen an undulating sea of wilderness as far as the 

 eye could reach a gorgeous expanse of matted verdure ; here and 

 there tall, slender columns of gigantic palms pierced the forest-roof, 

 and gracefully waved aloft their drooping branches and leaves ; and 

 now and then a huge bank of clouds drifted up, like a Newfoundland 

 fog, curtaining the grand scene for a few moments, and then quickly 

 passing off. Our cascarillero soon descried some cinchonas in the dis- 

 tance by their glistening leaves, which reflected brightly the vertical 

 rays of the sun. 



This characteristic reflex of the foliage, with the bright, roseate 

 tints of the flowers, and in some species also of the leaves, affords the 

 means of discovering the cinchonas among the mass of the forest 

 giants. The glossy leaf of the India-rubber tree is easily mistaken 

 for the cinchona, but skilled cascarilleros are usually able to distin- 

 guish, at a great distance, varieties by the color of the flowers and 

 general appearance of the tree. 



At the bottom of a ravine we followed a small stream, till suddenlj- 

 our guide shouted, "Cascarilla ! " and we were gladdened by the sight 

 of a number of fair-sized trees of Cinchona succirubra. 



The cinchonas seek the most secluded and inaccessible depths of the 

 forests ; they are rarely grouped in large numbers or close together, 

 but are distributed in more or less irregular, scattering patches. The 

 older trees are grand and handsome, forty to eighty feet in height, 

 trunks straight, branches regular, leaves evergreen (six to ten inches 

 long), of a dark-green color, sometimes tinged with crimson, the up- 

 per surface of an almost waxy luster, flowers in terminal panicles of 



