November 



1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



417 



MR. ROBKKT CROSS ON BED BARK CIN- 

 CHONAS AND ON INDIARUBBERS. 



The letter from Mr, Cross, the well-known plant- 

 collector, which appears below will be read with interest 

 by planters. It will be observed, that, as regards 

 iudiarubber trees, Mr. Cross is strong on their being 

 allowed to reach a fairly mature age before being 

 operated on. In that case, he states, they will bear 

 milking for a score of years. It is evident that much 

 of, our disappointment with rubber in Ceylon has been 

 du 1 to the too early tapping of the trees. 



Passing on to the cinchonas, Mr. Cross broaches 

 the opinion that there must be something wrong 

 with the bark from Ceylon to account for the un- 

 remuuerative prices recently obtained. We believe 

 there is nothing wrong but the over-abundant supply 

 and, perhaps, the large proportion of twig bark sent 

 into the market. In an early stage of the enter- 

 prize, the late Mr. John Eliot Howard characterized 

 the cultivated barks from India and Ceylon as largely 

 superior to the barks gathered in the forests of 

 South America, and not long ago Dr. Tiimen showed 

 how the proportion of quinine in led bark increased 

 with age an I altitude. We have recognized varieties 

 of succirubras in Ceylon, all hough not by any means so 

 marked as 111 the case of officinalis, but the amount of 

 quinine and of alkaloids generally has been referred 

 not to differences of type so much as to age, altitude at 

 which the plants were grown, and to the fact of 

 the bark being allowed full time to renew after the 

 stripping or shaving process. Scientific men have 

 not recognized the essential difference in red barks 

 on wiiich Mr, Cross insists, and, while the analyses 

 to which he refers us and our readers show excel- 

 lent results, Mr. Cross, unfortunately, does not en- 

 able us to institute comparisons between the inferior 

 and the superii r varieties, nor does he help planters 

 to the characteristics by which the superior red bark- 

 whioh he claims to have introduced, can be dis- 

 tinguished from the infeiior which, so strangely, Mr. 

 1'leminti Markham and others persisted in foisting 

 on India and Ceylon. Cinchona planters would be 

 too glad to confine cultivation to superior kinds 

 alone, if only Mr. Cross would describe the poin's 

 of difference in foliage, blossom, fruit, bark and 

 habit of growth, between his superior varieties and 

 the ordinary plants available. At present, we sup- 

 pose, in view of ihe glutted market and correspond- 

 ingly low prices, the tendency is either to abandon 

 cinchona culture altogether or to confine attention 

 to the most robust and best quality hybrids and the 

 ledger ianas. Attention to best quality red barks might 

 bo t-till continued, if Mr. Cross would only be good 

 enough to give full and detailed descriptions by which 

 such best quality could be identified, or better still 

 were Mr. Cross to arrange for a good supply o 

 either seeds or plants for sale here of his superior 

 red bark trees. 



We thiuk it probable that Dr. Trimen, who re. 

 gards the Fata de Gallinozo of Mr. Cross as a fig- 

 ment, will have something to say on the present 

 allegation that most planters in India and Ceylon 

 have been wasting money on inferior red barks when 

 the true und superior plant was, according to Mr, 

 Cross, available. 



MR. ROBERT CROSS, THE PLANT COLLECTOR. 



ON CINCHONAS AND INDIARUBBERS. 



[To tlh' Editor, '• Tropical AnrirnHuri.it.") 



Glasgow! 9th Sept. 1S84. 

 Sir, — A little over two years ago, after arrival on 

 the Nilgiris with a collection of cinchona plants for 

 which 1 was sent by tho India Oilico to South 

 53 



Americi, I pointed out the mistake which had been 

 made in planting in sone of the plantations there a 

 poor kind of cinchona, the Huanueo birk of Peru. 

 for the Cinchona, succirubra or true "red bark " of 

 Chimborazo, plants of which were dug up by myself 

 in their native habitat and brought to India 20 years 

 previously. 



At the lime of introduction of the cinchonas into India, 

 it so happened that the Huanueo birk and the " red 

 bark " reached India about the same time, were pro. 

 pn gated in tho same hothouse, during which operation 

 they ^e^m to have got mixed together, and in this 

 way the "rod hark " plants were lost sight of. There 

 is, of course, often a considerable resemblance between 

 young plants of the Huanueo and " red bark " when 

 growing in a fertile soil and especially when forced 

 in a hothouse. 



In India as in South America, two distinct varieties 

 of "red bark" are recognized. One of tlnse has 

 smooth foliage, while the leaves of the other are hairy 

 nnderneiih. These are respectively termed by South 

 American collectors the pnta and Irjaot " tile " hark. 



Before leaving India I collected samples of these 

 together »ith some "Crown" for purposes of com- 

 parison. The objects in view were :— 



1st. — To compare the yield of the pata with the l< ja. 



2nd. — Tokclace both these sorts against " Crown." 



3rd.— To observe tie increase of alkaloids which takes 

 place as the hark grows older. 



Just lately these samples have been analysed, for 

 which I am entirely indebted to the obliging kind- 

 ness of David Howard, Esq., f.c.s. Most of the samples, 

 as will be seen, were of renewed bark, the aim being 

 to secure birk of eacli sort of the same age. How- 

 evtr, it will be understood that among trees of 

 similar size, one tree from any particular circum- 

 stance may develop thicker bark than another in 

 the fame space of time. I heg to direct attention 

 to the surprising puiity of the contents of the bark 

 and the small propo'tion of the inferior alkaloids 

 contained therein when compared with the yield of 

 cpjiuine. 



I will further expels my opinion that when really 

 good specif s are cultivated an ample 3 ield of the 

 best alkaloids will follow. On the other hand, when 

 a planter ii lighting with mixed-up seed of inferior 

 varieties no superior system of cultivation will avail. 



It is out of the question that any sort of hark 

 should be sold nt such low prices as we have seen 

 recorded for several parcels from Ceylon sold at Mincing 

 Lane some time ago. There must be Something im- 

 mensely wrong to induce this state of things, though, as I 

 am unacquainted with the climatic conditions and other 

 circumstances of Ceylon, I w. 11 not expri ss an opinion 

 on the subject. At the same tune it occurs to me 

 that one or two very simple avoidable circumstances 

 are at the bottom of the whole affair. 



I am glad to learn from some newspaper reports that 

 the iudiarubber trees which we originally collected on 

 the Isthmus of Panama and in Brazil are thriving in 

 Ceylon. The trees of all three species, the Oastilloa, 

 Para, and Ceara, should be allowed to attain a good 

 size before being operated on. They will then hear to 

 be tapped or milked every day for nine months of 

 the year. If the wood is not much injured in this 

 operation (the CastiUoa is most sensitive), they will 

 bear working for 20 or 30 years. The widespread 

 mode of making cuts or incisions or by slicing off a 

 portion of bark may be tried on the Ceara tree. The 

 tapping process which is performed by making two 

 cuts like a V at the base of which a small cup is 

 luted on to the tree by means of clay is lately 

 practised in Brazil. The method often adopted in 

 collecting CastiUoa milk in Central America is by 

 making a perpendicular channel in the bark of the 

 trunk with lesser channels leading into it. These we 



