638 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883. 



alluo's in the region of the Orinoco and Amazon. 

 Very likely among these or other allied trees may 

 be found others similar with quinine-yielding barks, 

 which would repay cultivation." In the next section 

 Prof. Fluckiger describes the methods of harvesting 

 the cinchona bark in South America and also the 

 recently adopted processes of coppicing, mossing, and 

 Bcraijing. In section 7 tlie appearance and anatomical 

 structure of the barks are described, section 8 deal- 

 ing with the contents of the tissue and the seat 

 of the alkaloids. In the next section the varieties 

 of cinchona barks, calisaya, lancifolia and succirubra 

 as they are sent to the market, are described, " pata- 

 de galliuazo " being lidiculed as a fantastic name ; 

 "loxa" is also referred to. Section 10 treats of the 

 so calleil falfse quina barks, viz., Cascarilla magnifolia 

 or QiiLua nova, rosa, &c. , which contain no quina 

 alkaloids and generally no alkaloids whatever. The 

 11th section is devoted entirely to Quina cuprea, to 

 which Prof. Fluckiger was the first to call attention 

 in 1871, though Mr. Howard had so far back as 

 18S7 received a piece of this bark and had noticed 

 its quinine-yielding property. Its first appearance in 

 quantity in the London market took place in 1879-80, 

 ami since then the imports have been very large. 

 Prof. Fluckiger describes the external differences 

 between it and true cinchona bark, the shape 

 of the bark cells being very distinct ; the cuprea 

 bark also yields catt'eic acid, which is not the 

 case with other (juina barks. Another bark, in- 

 troduced with the cuprea bark, but differing from 

 it, is described as cinchouamine bark. In section 1"2 

 statistics are given of the imports of bark during 

 the last few years into London and other places, 

 and the prices for quinine which have ruled in Ger- 

 many, together with tlie probable consumption of the 

 sulphate in that country. Sections 1.3 and 14 deal at 

 length with the chemical composition of the quina barks 

 and the quantitative analysis of the alkaloids, several 

 methods being given for the determination of the latter, 

 but a footnote stating that a quick practical method is 

 still wanting. In the next section the manufacture 

 of quinme is described, and the efforts of Broughton 

 and \Vood are referred to. Section 13 contains a 

 sticcinct history of the quina barks up to 1737, and 

 section 14 canies the history up to recent times, 

 and concludes as follows : — " The settling of so many 

 still open questions in respect of the cinchonas must 

 be hoped from the forest culture of these trees, on 

 the development of which the interesting official re- 

 ports of the English and Dutch give continuous inform- 

 ation. Very desirable is the complete systematic 

 knowledge of the entire division of the cinchonea? 

 and the comparative examination of the barks of 

 each separate variety from a chemical and an ana- 

 tomical point of view." Section 18 gives a list of 

 38 of the latest works on the cinchonas and quina 

 barks, Mr. Owen's manual being mentioned. An in- 

 dex adds to the usefulness of tlie work, which we 

 hope will appear in an English form. 



We may add that the value of Prof. Fliickiger's 

 work is enhanced by a scries of well-executed en- 

 gravings of various types of the true cinchonas and 

 of one of the plants wliich yield the cuprea bark. 

 The first engraving represents the characters, in stalk 

 leaf, flower and seed, of Cinrhona succinibm from an 

 example supplied by the late Mr. Mclvor in 1875. 

 The second picture pourtrays Cinchona Calimya, rar. 

 Lcdfieriana," nach Exemplaren aus Java," the male and 

 female forms of the blossom being carefully distin- 

 guished, and the peculiar small rouiul dots on the 

 Ledgeriana leaf being prominently shewn. In the 

 case of this most valuable of all species there is a 

 separate engraving, also from a Java specimen, dis- 

 jilaying fully tlie character of the seed capsules, 

 natural size and magnified, the enlargiug under the 



microscope revealing pubescence on the capsule. Next 

 comes a portrait of Cinchona lancifolia, also from a 

 Java specimen, at once distinguishable from Ledg- 

 eriana, by its much smaller leaves and its mucii more 

 elongated blossoms and fruit capsules, the latter taper- 

 ing more to a point than is the case with the 

 short stumpy Ledgeriana seeds. The specimen of C. 

 officinalis figured represents a twig from Darjeeling 

 and indicates characteristics of leaf, blossom and fruit, 

 familiar to cinchona planters in Ceylon. Contrastecl 

 with this form are the long, bean-like capsules of 

 Cascarilla hcterocarpa (maijmfolia), copied from 

 Karsten's work on the Flora of Columbia. Finally 

 we have a figure of the principal type of the plants 

 which, though resembling the true cuichonas in foliage, 

 do not belong to them, but whicli yield a bark 

 (cuprea) with much the same properties. The name 

 of the plant figured in Remijia pedunculata, the Cin- 

 chona pednnculata of Karsten's Flora of Columbia. 

 The foliage is wonderfully like that of C. officinalis, 

 but, alter all is said and done, we do not believe 

 cuprea bark is destmed to supersede that of the tiiie 

 cinchon a. The characters of the two barks under 

 the microscope, as figiu'ed in this volume, shew vejy 

 marked difference. For purposes of comparison we 

 have first a pase devoted to figures shewing cross 

 sections through the young bark of Cinchona Calisaya, 

 older bark of the same, and bark of 0. lancifolia. 

 The outside bark, the cells, the pores and other 

 vessels and constituents of the barks are shewn in 

 careful detail, and comparison proves the vast differ- 

 ence in the fibrous matter of the true cinchonas and 

 that of cuprea bark. A large section of cuprea bark, 

 given separately, shews in a still more striking light 

 the sti'uctural difference of cuprea bark from that of 

 genuine cinchona. To chemists, especially qumologists, 

 and botanists, this work of FlUckiger's will be of 

 special value, while to the planter it is interesting 

 as well as useful from the large amount of inform- 

 ation it summarizes and the well executed plates it 

 contains of the leading species of the "Quina" 

 plants, the cultivation of which in the Eastern World 

 during the past quarter of a century has advanced 

 so rapidly that there can be little hesitation in as- 

 sertmg that there are now more cinchonas in Java, 

 Lidia and Ceylon than could be counted in all the 

 forests of the Andes. 



AGRICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT OF 



EUROPE. 



{S23ecial Letter. ) 



Paris, December. 



The persistent rain is making sad havoc with agii- 

 cultural operations. Autumn sowings are literally 

 made on mud, if made at all. In other ciscs the 

 soil is so soft, that neither plough nor cart can be 

 utilized. The rain has this peculiarity, that it comes 

 chicfiy from tlie north and east, and that it is altern- 

 ately warm and glacial. Another important (iper- 

 atiou retarded is that of pruning the vines. This has 

 not taken place as usual in the ftutunin, as the wood 

 at present continues tn be actually green. However, 

 the operation will not be very bad if delayed till 

 spring, many growers being of opinion that is the 

 bist period for pi uning, and tells notably on the aug- 

 mentstion of the grapes, I may here remark that the 

 yield of vine during the late vintage is now definitely 

 known : it will lie only 440 million gallons : last .year 

 it was 308 million gallons more. In years gone by, 

 the mean vintage of France was 1,100 million aallons. 

 In the sugar-be.t regions, the effects of the weather 

 are next to disastrous ; the roots can only witli great 

 dithculty be lifted, but then it is next to impossible 

 to cart tbem to the factory. The roots are ' ■ forky" 



