THE GEORGIA BARK OR QUININE TREE. 39 



peratures. As the temperature falls the quantity separated per 

 degree becomes constantly less and less. 



In rather dry tissues, as some winter buds for instance, a tem- 

 perature as low as 0° F. or even — 10° F. may be required before 

 ice crystals can be readily seen in the tissue. 



As far as the protoplasm is concerned, this is a drying process, 

 and it seems very likely that death from freezing is usually, if 

 not always, due to the drying out of the protoplasm beyond its 

 critical water content. 



THE GEORGIA BARK OR QUININE TREE (PINCKNEYA 



PUBENS). 



By Elfleda B. Taylor. 



That a plant of such unusual beauty and reputed usefulness in 

 the past as the subject of this sketch should remain in obscurity 

 is difficult to understand. In life, it is true, the meritorious do 

 not always meet with just reward, and old things, however long 

 and faithful their service, are put aside for new ways and inven- 

 tions. Year after year, in the depths of the wild woods, the 

 Piiickiicya, or Georgia bark, as it is commonly called, spread its 

 rose-crowned branches — unsought and comparatively unknown, 

 while the fame of its neighbor on every hand, though of less im- 

 portance, is spread far and wide. I have learned from good 

 authority that this tree played no small part in the weal and woe 

 of mankind during the Civil War. It was known as the quinine 

 tree, or Georgia bark, and was held in no little reverence by the 

 inhabitants of certain malarial districts where doctors were inac- 

 cessible and quinine could not be had. A drink was made from 

 the bark and administered as a substitute for tea. This is an 

 obvious example of the belief prevalent and still adhered to 

 among the negroes that — "' bark for tea slips from the tree." In 

 the efifort to uproot a small plant, apparently but slightly an- 

 chored in the sand, so readily does it slip, the bark is left in 

 hand, while the plant remains stationary, denuded root and 

 branch. 



