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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[October i, 1883, 



<^ — ■ 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer, 

 MR. HOWARD ON 0. LEDGERIANA. 



Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradenij'a, 

 12th September, 1883. 



Sib, — It had been my intention to continue to 

 abstain from entering in any way into the discussion 

 recently raised over my paper of Kovember 1S81 on 

 C. Ledgeriwia, at all events until the com- 

 munication of Mr. Howard to the Lmneau Society 

 calling in question the right of our Ceylon plant to 

 bear that name should be publisliud. The matter in 

 dispute is, in my opmion, a purely technical one, de- 

 pending for its right appreciation on a knowledge of 

 the application of the rules of taxonomic and de- 

 scriptive botany, which are of no general intei'est. 

 My paper was addressed to botanists through the 

 medium of a technical periodical : I cannot in its dis- 

 cussion travel outside of the botanical boundary. 



But it would now seem that I may not have to 

 engage even in any scientific controversy, since Mr. 

 Howard, in a letter to the " Planters' Gazette " of 

 August 16th, after telling us in italics that he has 

 " cofi-ecled" the paper he read at the Linn, an Society, 

 goes on to give up the botanical position altogether. He 

 now informs us indeed that his term " Ledgeriana ', 

 was not intended as the name of a variety or form 

 of Cinchona, that in fact it did not apply to a plant 

 or tree at all, but ' ' was meant to include all the 

 barh of a certain rich quality grown in Java from 

 Ledger'a bag of seeds, and called such in trade." 

 Now if this were really the case, I need scarcely say 

 tliat such a name could not possibly claim any 

 sort of recognition by botanists, and I should 

 have taken no notice of it in my paper. Mr. 

 Howard's attempt to thus shelve his botanical responsi- 

 bility will, howevernot square with the fact that he ob- 

 tained from the late Dr. Weddell — one of the best 

 authorities — a Latin diagonsis of " C Calisaya, var. 

 Ledgeriana, How." drawn up in due technical botanic 

 form ; and published it in his " Quinology " in 1876. 

 It is by this that he must abide : in it tliere is not 

 a single word about the bark, but it is attempted to 

 define the variety by the form of the leaves and 

 panicles, and the white flowers. We now know these 

 distinctions to be quite uisufEcient for tlie purpose ; 

 but this was all the publislied botanical information 

 existing when I drew up fuller and more accu- 

 rate characteristics from living specimens of adult trees. 



With all respect for my friend, Mr. Howard, I do 

 not think any regret would be felt if he were really 

 to abandon the botanical questions connected witli 

 cincliona ; whilst, on the other hand, we must all hope 

 that he may long continue to "approach the subject 

 from the side of the bark " only, and thus further con- 

 tribute to our knowledge of Quinology. It is perhaps, 

 now time to remind people that though a man may be a 

 skilful chemist and a very successful manufacturer 

 of quinine, it doea not follow of necessity that he 

 should be also an authority on the botany of one 

 of the most difficult genera that ever perplexed the 

 systematist. With tlic best intentions, this Ledycriana 

 bewilderment is by no means the first confusion 

 which Mr. Howard has been the author of, by 

 attempting to do that for which he hae not had the 

 requisite training. There is uothing surprizing in this, 

 and it may be safely said, without censing to be 

 grateful for the splendid volumes we owe to bis 

 liberality, that from the botanical stand-point it is 

 in many respects to be regretted that Mr. Howard 

 eVer attempted to tackle questions of technical 

 scientific botany, for dealing with which Ue is so 

 little qualilied. 



In the letter to the Planters' Gazette we are told that 

 the "true Ledgeriana" — the tree this time, I presume, 

 not merely the bark — is to be restricted to the "Hojo of 

 Ledger" and the " Tata" of the Indians. The latter name 

 caimot but remind us of theNUgiri "Fata," a recently 

 blown-up fallacy, which was also backed by Mr. Howard 

 in opposition to good botanical evidence. No inform- 

 ation which might help us to know tliis "Rojo"when 

 WH see it is given by Mr. Howard, beyond the remark 

 that the leaves turn red when they wither — a rather 

 ordinary phenomenon. The liark side of the present 

 question I may safely leave to the planters ; merely 

 remarking that 1 fail to see how, on the principles of 

 classification he advocates, Mr. Howard can place the 

 ordinary grey barks and barks affording from 8 to 13 

 per cent, quinine sulphate, with an almost total absence 

 of inferior alkaloids, under one and tlie same species, 

 C, micrautha. — I am, sir, yours faithfully, 



HENRY TRIMEN. 



To the Editoi- of the " rianten' Gazette:' 

 SiE, — My time has been much occupied in the last two 

 weeks in Quiuological pm-suits, and in returning your 

 papers I send .some brief notes. I am correcting, whilst 

 passing through the press, my contribution to the subject, 

 which will shortly be published by the Linnean Society. 

 To this .^0 conected, I must refer you in place of news- 

 paper reports. I am availing myself of a visit of Mr. 

 O. Ledger to this country to go carefully into the whole 

 question with him and Mr. Holmes, the Curator of the 

 Museum of the Pharmaceutical Ssociety, and with others 

 interested in the cultivation of Calisaya. 



It will interest your readers to learn that Mr. 

 Ledger is quite satisfied with my jilauts derived from 

 the Yarrow estate (Ceylon) as representing his Sojo or 

 red .sort; resting his opinion on the characters I 

 poinded out at the Liunean. He says that the 

 beautiful richness of the foliage remains, especially in 

 those parts of the tree which are least exposed. It is this 

 sort to which the Indians attach so much value that they 

 cross themselves when they meet with a tree of it and call it 

 the Trita or "Father" tree, believing (as I think not with- 

 out reason) that it has a beneficial iutluence on aU around 

 and that all will be found " Calisaya" or true bark. 



Mr. Ledger cannot tell what this word means, but Dr. 

 AVeddell, who spoke the Indian language, says (in his 

 "Histoire." p. 31) that it means "the red sort," "Colli 

 siguifie, en ett'et roni/e, en langue Quichua, et sai/a pris au 

 figure, veut dire '.sorte' ou 'forme,'" or (as I gather from 

 Tschudi's German Dictionary of the language). Colli, " the 

 rod of glowing embers." >S'«^f< " iitihen," Mr. Ledger fixed 

 upon a slab of Calisaya in my possession nearly three quart- 

 ers of an inch in thickness as the true and highly prized 

 Sojo. Ho tells me that Dr. Weddell had heard of the white 

 flowers, and sought for them, but without success. To 

 obtain this " red sort " has been the special aim of Mr. 

 Ledger, and by special policy he was able to defeat the 

 jealous tactics of the Indians, who boast that no one who 

 obtains true seed shall leave the valleys alive. They either 

 supply inferior qualities or destroy the germinating power. 

 They laid wait for five days for Mr. Markham, who escaped 

 through a Providential circumstance ; and they poured 

 boiling water ou my friend Dr. Weddell's plants, who was 

 profoundly atfccted by the outrage. 



This jRo/o is, then, the true Ledt/eeiaiia, as, in looking over 

 my old letters, I fully recognize. ' Mr. Ledger sees it repre- 

 sented in my Plate IV, or the Macho form A. He does 

 not SCO it in form B., or in the plant I have from 

 Diirjecliug which 1 think is probably the same B. form. I 

 have in all, nine specimens of Java trees from Ledger's seed 

 through the hands of M. Moens. . There are diiferent 

 varieties in these, which Mr. L. does not recognize, but 

 which are I'eproduced in specimens from British India. I 

 should say, that liis faithful IiicUan employed liis own 

 sons in gathering seed from fifty trees in ditterent places, 

 and the different collections got afterwards mixed together. 

 The whole appeared to me to represent Weddell's var] 

 niicroiMr])a. 



Mr. Ledger entirely rejects my Micrantha Calisai/oiiks ; 

 as also Dr. Trimen's Plate. The colour of the chauging 



