Dec. I, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



39S 



the holders were very few in number, aud could 

 control all arrivals, while the demand was very sharp 

 and greatly beyond the real necessities of the case. 

 Next, because the exciEenient in tlie market came at 

 a time between the October ami JIarch crops, and 

 liming the rainy season, when but little coca could 

 safely cross the coast range to the seaports. Aud 

 finally, by the civil war among a people who, at 

 best, are very slow to respond to the demands of 

 trade, though very greedy of gain, and always impecu- 

 nious. 



The great danger now seems to be that all this 

 ^\ill produce a corresponding reaction. The writer 

 has not known the time when a tou or two of 

 coca of inferior (ju^lity, yielding fairly of alkaloid 

 to the improving process, could not have been easily 

 bouo-ht in this market, but at very high prices, — say, 

 from r25 dol. to 1'75 dol. per pounci, while for two 

 months past the arrivals have not been large enough 

 to make much impreSBiou on the price. The March 

 crop is now gathered and in the home markets, aud 

 if, stimulated by the reports of tlie high prices in 

 the United States and in Europe, large quantities 

 are thrown into these markets, the price may be 

 ruinously depressed. 



No one seems to think how small a quantity of 

 the alkaloid will really be required for all the uses 

 to which it can be put,— or how far a drachm vial 

 of a 4 per cent solution really goes in the ordinary 

 practice of any physician or surgeon. It is now 

 highly probable that every manufacturer in this 

 country is, in common with this writer, overstocked 

 with. alkaloid, and wishing that he could find a sale 

 for it that would enable liim to make it on a larger 

 and therefore more economical scale. The writer has 

 as.sayed samples of good coca sent by Dr. Jones, 

 Mr. Gibbs aiul Mr. Dauelsberg, and they all yielded 

 over •3,') per cent of cocaine or about twenty-five 

 gr.dns to the pound. Assays of two lots, which ar- 

 rived during the past month, gave each about 4 per 

 cent ei|nivaleut to about twenty-eight grains to the 

 pound. But thus far all these lost are controlled in 

 the interests of his;h pri es, none that was good 

 having been met with at less than 100 dollar per 

 pound. From such coca, at a moderate i)rice, the 

 salt of the alkaloid coidd be sold at a fair profit at 15c. 

 per grain instead of the recent price of 30c., and 

 any one of the four manufacturers in this country 

 conld easily supply the entire demand. 



Late in April, however, tlie price of the hydio- 

 cldorate, though pretty firmly held in the wholesale 

 market, was reported to have declined in private 

 channels. The Medical Department of the Army was 

 in the market for 2,000 grains, and although the 

 quantity was so small, the competing bills were said 

 to be 18, 19, 1!U, 20 and 22 cents per grain, and 

 this report, if not entirely correct, was believed to 

 be very nearly so. This gave the writer another 

 opportunity of reducing his price without risk of 

 being bought out for conjpetition. He had been selling 

 at 30c. per grain, subject to the 10 per cent discount 

 of his list, and had not varied from that price. But 

 when others were offering at ISc, he also reduced 

 his price to that figure on May 20, that is, to 20c. 

 per grain, subject to 10 per cent discount upon the 

 conditions of his list of prices. This price is quite 

 high enough now that coca of fair quality is coming 

 iu so freely that the high prices cannot be longer 

 maintained. 



The quality is improving very much with the 

 quantity arriving, and soon, upon the arrival of that 

 shipped in tins, there will be an opportunity of 

 making a good fluid extract again.— I^harmacextica/ 

 Journal. 



GnowiNfi FonKST Turks. — Save in the case of high 

 mountain sites, or where large tracts have to be laid 

 down under wood in a short space of time, and 

 with a scanty supply of labour, modem foresters have 

 clearly established the superiority of planting over 

 sowing, on the grounds both of economy and tho 

 hotter results obtained.— /"/(A', 



50 



I DOUNDAKK AND ITS BARK.* 



(• Quinquina afi-ieiiiii," or "Kina du Rio-Nmuz.") 



UY E. HECKEV. AND F. SCHI.AQDKNHAtlFPEN. 



The doundakc although doubtless used from the 



remotest aniiquity by negroes iif .Vfrica, has only 



during the last seven or eight years been suspected 



t by_Kuropeans to have any true value. It was only in 



18"() that it was pointed out by M. N'enturini, a 



French naval pharmacist, as being possibly eap.ible 



of other use than as a charm or fetish among the 



I uegroes. This author affirmed that the active principle 



I of the bark was salicin, a statenieui that has not been 



[ confirmed. 



The doundake plant was first described, though 

 imperfectly, by Afzulius, f who created for it the 

 genus A'urcoce/iliaiii.i, .and named it 6' esulentus, on 

 account of the agreeable taste of its fleshy syncarpio 

 fruit, which caused it to be much sought after by 

 the natives. The description has been reproduced in 

 a condensed form, but with some additions and 

 rectifications by Oliver.J This author, however, whilst 

 mentioning the popular names of the plant in two 

 or three dialects, such as '■ doy" (15a,s.sa) and 

 "anielliki" (Sierra Leone), does not mention the name 

 "doundake," in the Sousou dialect, which is cerlainly 

 the designation under which this plant is best known. 

 Oliver places the genus kurcucepludus iu the tribe 

 Nauclea?, in the Kubiacese, and he only mentions 

 two species as occurring iu Africa, S. enciiliiitiis, 

 Afz'^l., and &'. Riis.<e{/e.n, Kotchy. The former is almost 

 exclusively limited to the literal of the western coast, 

 whilst the latter grows in the interior. So closely 

 do these two species re.semble one another that 

 Jles.srs. Heckel and Schlagdenhauffeu thiuk it prob.able 

 that what is said about the hark of the doundake 

 will apply equally to the bark of the tree growing 

 iu the interior. On the other hand. Dr. Corre has 

 reported that he saw a plant in the forest of M'bour, 

 between Joal and Portudal, which had the general 

 appearance of the doundake, though its bark was 

 white and devoid of bitterness. But as he did not 

 .see the flowers it is not certain whether this plant 

 was identical with S. Jliisser/epi or a third species. 

 The authors of the present paper having received 

 further iuformation ooucerniug the doundake plant, 

 together with flowers, leaves and brauches preserved 

 iu spirit, have drawn up the followiug description: — 

 Sarfocejihiihis fscii/rnUis, Afzel.— A .shrub, with a 

 short, robust and knotted trunk, gnnrled and thickset 

 like the small Breton oaks, hut of less dimensions, 

 sometimes attaining the thickness of a man's leg. 

 In young plants the branches spring from the stocks, 

 forming a loose cluster, .and attaining a great length 

 without any ramification, or at the moat, in a very 

 slight and apparently aborted form. The smooth or 

 puberulous shrub occurs .sometimes under the aspect 

 of a climbing bush, three to seven metres high. The 

 stem is covered with an uneipial, rugose, fissured 

 bark, but differing very much iu appearance according 

 to the age of the plant ami the loc;ility in which 

 it has grown. In the adult state the barks coming 

 from the Kio Nunez differ in apjjearauce from those 

 coming from Sierra Leone. The former have a corky 

 aspect, which explains the name of Naudfa saiit- 

 hiuina given to the plant by T. M'interbottom. 

 Usually, this hark is grey in the young condition, 

 but later is of a more or less deep yellow. The 

 subjacent layers, which sep.arate in thin lamellre 

 throughout the whole length of tlie stem, are of 

 a more or less decided orange-yellow colour, but most 

 frequently rather bright. Tlie young branches have 

 a thin greyish bark, fissured longitudinally, and covered 

 with small blotches or small bluish, marly cylindrical, 

 or slightly tetragonal .spots. Leaves ojipositc, coriaceous, 

 slightly acuminate, obscurely narrowed or nearly 

 rounded at the base, with limb entire, glossy, glabr- 

 ous on both surfaces, slightly a.symmetric, undulated, 



* Abstract of a paper iu the Journal de I'hirmacie 

 for April 1 and 15, [5], xi., AC'j, 468. 

 t ' Transact. Hort. Soc, London,' vol v. 

 } ' Flor. Trop. Africa,' vol. iii., p. 38. 



