November i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



305 



best of all ia its yield of quinine. For one tree of the rojo 

 you will find 6fty of the Calisaya. The leaves of the rojo 

 are of a bright scarlet colour, and of darker green ou sur- 

 face than those of other good descriptions." 



This richer green colouring of the- leaves, changiug very 

 naturally to red briglit iu decay, is much rested ou by Mr, 

 Ledger, and I have no doubt finds its explanation in the 

 term vuicho, which Dr. AVeddeU applies to this sort, Coli- 

 sdi/a zamha (J. necji'a or C. niacka. (ii) The two first imply the 

 very dark colour of the upper side of the slabs of bark, 

 which arc now rarely, if ever, seen, and these terms are 

 probably forgotten and quite unknown to Mr. Ledger, though 

 not to Rada, who ctUed his fine slabs, the like of which 

 have never been seen since, negrilla. I am sorry to hear 

 that Mr. Kada has suffered so mucli in health, partly from 

 wounds received from the wild Indians on his voyage down 

 the rivers, that he is not likely to undertake another such 

 expeditiou.^fl'he trees from which these were taken were 

 from 120 to 150 feet in height. 



I now come to the term macho, (0) which Dr. Weddell ex- 

 plains thus : — " The flowers of the Cinchona present in the 

 relative greatness of their sexual organs variations very 

 interesting to study — not only on account of the fre<jue!icy 

 with which they present themselves in many species, but 

 by the curious circumstances which (parfois) accompany 

 them. If the stigmata are protruded the anthers are 

 ahnost sessile in the middle of the tube of the corolla; if, 

 on the contrary, the anthers raised on their filaments 

 appear at the mouth of this tube, the style then is found 

 reduced and the stigmata occupy the place before held 

 by the anthers. In a word the development of the style 

 and that of the stamens are constantly in the inverse pro- 

 portion the one to the other; and not only that of the 

 male organs is always accompanied by the simidtancous 

 development of the floral ehvelopes, but, a fact very worthy 

 of remark, other parts of the plant appear to feci this 

 predominance of the strong sex. The leaves, fop example, 

 m5,y be more richly coloured, the mark more robust. Now, 

 the cascarilleros, who very certainly never occupy them- 

 selves with the details of the flowers, have, nevertheless, 

 remarked in the aspect, in the produce even, of these (p) 

 bark trees such differences, that they have had the idea 

 of distinguishing tlieni by the epithets, male and female 

 {macho y hemhra)^ and since my attention has been awr^k- 

 ened to this subject, I have been not a little surprised to 

 find a coincidence between this epithet of macho^ so naively 

 applied by the natives (les homines des bois), and the pre- 

 doniinauce of the male system of which I speak. 



I think I now see the reason why Dr. "NVeddlll did not 

 proceed in the description of this varietj'. He found it, 

 indeed, " uu peu embarassante," to make a distinct 

 variety, still more a species out of the macho. To dis- 

 tinguish thus, the bull amongst the herd might appear 

 pedantic ! 



Weddell's ' Histoire' was published in 1849. AVhen after- 

 wards, in 1809, he saw his way clear to define his C. 

 calisayamicrocaypa^hagiwQ^ a description intended (?) to be 

 include {q) all the forms of small fruited Calisaya. at all 

 events the zamlia and zambita (he drops the term maeha). 

 The pubescency under of the surface of the leaf seems 

 more marked in "Weddell's plate than elsewhere and he 

 does not give (as not having seen) the flowers, but it 

 seems to me that not only I\Ir. Ledger's nyjo, but all 

 that might imperfectly be called Colli-saya, the verde of 

 Mr. Christy. (?') the C i^(^//i'/rt?ia and other forms m.ay nil 

 be called ^V'eddel^s "second sort." I do not know the 

 form which he defines " subtns puhescentUivs ;" this, strictly 

 speaking, excludes all the other forms. 

 My publication of C. Calisaya, var. Ledgenanaj is too in- 



(k) * Histoire,' p. 35. 



{(>) 'Histou'e,* J). 21. 



(p) Mr. Ledger says " they judge of the good rojo slabs 

 by their relative greater weight. The relative weight and 

 thickness of bark alike characteristic of true Ledgeriana. 

 1 well remember purchasing and packing, in 1852, more 

 than 120 tons of Calisaya vera bark. Out of all that quantity 

 1 was only able to pick out 2 tons of rojo or womda 9\i\hi^. 

 You also can verify my statement by your own practical 

 knowledge." 



(ly) Amialcs des Sciences JVat., vol. xi., p. 5. 



{r) A distinct and very valuable form, "Weddell's C. Cali- 

 saya oblviujifolia (see*SV/c«c^A- Sai., [5], t. xii., p. 5). 



elusive, as taking in all the varieties recognized as such 

 by Mr. Moens. I am sure that this gentleman, to whom 

 we are all so much indebted for his able analyses, and I 

 myself specially for his most carefidly prepared herba- 

 rium, will see that it belongs to Mr. Ledger, and to him 

 alone, to define what is the true Ledgeriana. It is then 

 my form A, the macho, exclusive of form B and form C 

 and other forms now existing in Java and in Ceylon from 

 whence specimens (received from T. K. Christie, Ceylon), 

 are now in the Museum.(j;) They are (?) microcmya, but 

 not Ledgeriana. 



The bark of the true Ledgeriana is that which was sent 

 me by M. Van Gorkom ; typically resembling W'eddell's 

 zanihita, from the province of Yungas, now before me. Of 

 this extraordinarily ricii bark a certain portion has come 

 in trade, but probably a larger portion, from very inferior 

 ti'ces (still called Ledgeriana). The recent specimens from 

 the Amsterdam Exhibition, now in the Pharmaceutical 

 Society's Museum are miserable ; but I have taken cai-e to 

 forward a true specimen. It will be seen at once how 

 much these differ. I have not met with any yet, from 

 British India, of the true rojo. 



1 also ask the Pharmaceutical Society's acceptance of 

 original specimens from the herbarium of Mr. Moens, of 

 the form A, from which my plate of the true Ledgeriana 

 was drawn ; — and also of other forms. 



Mr. Ledger does not recognize my Mycrantha calisayoides 

 nor Dr. Trimen's C. Ledyericma, Moens. As we have no 

 description of the bark of the latter, nor any analysis as 

 far as I can learn of the bark of the tree itself, I may 

 be mistaken in associating the two ; for the rapid degene- 

 racy of sorts when, iu cultivation, the beautiful natural ar- 

 rangements are interfered with, begins to open n new chapter 

 in the history of the culture ; which it would scarcely be 

 pleasant, though perhaps necessary, to write ; and hyhridi.sm 

 leads to endless confusion. The pollen of the Bohviau 

 ■}iiicrantha may have affected some of these sorts. 



I do not agree with Dr. Otto Kuntze in regarding hy- 

 bridism as the source of improvement (quite the contr.irv), 

 but he has perhaps done good service in pointing atten- 

 tion to the subject of cross-fertilization. 



I look upon the Ledgeriana, not as a species, hut as one 

 form of Dr. "Weddell's second di\nsion of the species, and 

 as being the Calisaya par excellence, the true n;d sort. 



I have been surprized with the Iiigh appreciation by 

 Mr. Ledger (and as lie tells me by his Indian servant) of 

 my plate of Calisaya anglica. The leaves and flowers arc 

 both too large for Ledgeriana, but the colouring, to which I 

 attended my.^elf, as taken from a tree flowering with me, 

 represents exactly (it seems) the rich appearance of the 

 leaves 



Mr. Ledger's Indian exclaimed with admiration, and de- 

 light on seeing my plate that it was Tata, tata, lata. I 

 have looked back to my description of its parentage (■ (^uin- 

 ology, p. 87) and to Mr. Broughton's letters of 1873 and 

 find that " the seed was gathered from two trees of the 

 same red under-leaved variety of Calisaya.' and this again 

 from Ledger's seed. The idea of its being a hybrid mu.st 

 be abamloned if no interference of pollen had taken place 

 in India. The distance between the nearest districts iu 

 which the Succirubi-a and Calisaya are found is, in a direct 

 line over 1,100 miles. No possibility of the interference 

 of the pollen of these two can arise in their native habitats. 

 I find that I cannot conclude this notice without more 

 reference to technical botanical description than I intended 

 to introduce into these pages. 



I present then the diagnosis of Dr. "Weddcll, as defiuitfve 

 of the true rojo bark of Mr. C. Ledger. 



Cinchona calisaya var. Ledgeriana ["Weddell, pro j^art^ 

 How.J. (() *' O. foliis eUiptico-oblongis vel fere oblongis, ob- 

 tusis obtusissimisve, hand raro ante apicem nonihil angus- 

 tatis s. constrictis membranaceis, utrinque viridibus vel 

 subtns pallide purpurascentibus nervis simul rubris, axiUis 

 sat distincte scrobulatis, panicula florifera ovata, corollis 

 a Ibis, antheris suhe^rertis (saltem in specini. obviis) ; panicula 

 florifera suhcorymbosa, densa, capsulis ellipticis (9-12 mil- 

 hm. longis) puberulis." 



This it will be seen by comparison is not the A. micro- 

 is) See Pharm. Jon rn., August 11, 1883. 

 (t) * Quiuology, E. I. PLantations,' p. 85. 



