Fee. 1, 1E86.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



557 



midrib,— a variety yielding a tolerably rich bark. 

 There is also a considerable plot of worthless C. 

 7rtirro«M(/, ixhibitiiig the characteristic large panicles 

 of small fragrant pure-white dowers, and the smooth 

 longish-oval. strongly rihbed leaves. For the rest there 

 was little but what we had seen before. In the sheds 

 they were drying and packing " iiuill succirubra " of 

 very rich colour. 



Near the ciaitre of the plantation, at the point 

 where the main avenues meet, stands an obelisk, erecteil 

 to the memory of the Dutch explorer, .Jungliiihu. 

 It has, however, no inscription beyond some cabalistic 

 numbers, apparently left by the officials of the tri- 

 angulation survey :— scant homage lo the memory of a 

 great traveller ! Having examined at our leisure thr 

 various sections of tlie jilantation, we sauntered leisurely 

 towards the village, whither the carriages had been 

 sent before-hand; and, after nstiug awhile at the 

 paiiang grahau, we started on our return drive to 

 Baudoug, thus concluding an excursion, the i)lea.sant 

 memories of which will ever be associated in my mind 

 with the kindness, and hospitality, and good-fellowship 

 of my companions. 



In these stray notes I have limited my.self as far 

 as possible to particulars brought under niy notice 

 whilst on the spot, avoiding such general statistical 

 information as can be better gathirc'd from the period- 

 ical othcial rciwrts. I may, howiver, be allowed a 

 single remark on the enormous unportance which the 

 East Indian Cinchona industries hav(^ almost suddenly 

 assumed, Iwth from an econonnc and a medical point 

 of view. It is only about thirty years since the first 

 introduction of the Cinchona into .Java, and several 

 years were lost by the want of practical success which 

 atteniled the earlier e.xperiments. It is less than twenty 

 years since Jlr. l<.dger's seed was received in the East 

 Indies; nevertheless, according to the latest report, 

 there are now upwards of 7W,000 trees derived from 

 it in the (Joverument plantations of .Java alone, and 

 nearly a million more young plants of the same in 

 the nurseries. Not only has the effort I'een successful 

 as an experiment in acclimatization, but even more 

 gratifying hits been the result of selection nnd cultiv- 

 ation on the chemical constituents of the bark produced ; 

 and it has now become an indubitable fact that trees 

 can be raised on the plantations of .Java, Ceylon, and 

 the continent of India, furnishing bark richer beyond 

 all comparisou in alkaloids than any ever brought to 

 ug from their original home in h5outh America. 



The alwve paper gave riee to the following dis- 

 cussion : — 



BIr. Baker said that whilst listening to this very 

 interesting paper he had been thinkiug of the 

 i'OU,tHJ( i,Uy(J of people whom Hugland had to look 

 after ni Asia, whilst the Dutch had, as they had 

 heard, about l'U,(XJ(AO(X) to care for in .Java alone; 

 and he could not but rellect how important it 

 Was that the two nations should work hand in hand 

 together for the benefit of these enormous masses 

 of people. WhilBt looking back to the history of 

 the introduction of cinchoua it was very satisfactoi-y 

 to think of the way in which the Dutch and Kng- 

 lish had helpetl one another, and of the liberal 

 way particularly in which the Dutch ha<l assisted the 

 English, a matter which he leared was not sufficiently 

 appreciate*). Kor a long se.ies of years Dr. Koyle 

 and othr'r ph irmacologists who knew bow great was 

 the danger of cinchoua being annihilated iu ."ioulh 

 Americi urged on the Uovernment the duty of 

 sending out an expedition to bring home seeds for 

 cultivation, but for soniethiug like twenty years all 

 these efforts were in vain. The Diitch, however, 

 were more enlightened, they sent out Hasskarl, who, 

 at great risk went to the native home of the cin- 

 chona in the year lAjf) and brought back a great 

 quantity of se*ds which were taken to .Java and 

 there plant«<l. Cnfortunately a consiilerable quantity 

 of see-J which be brought belouged to kinds of cin- 

 chona which proved not to be valuable in rc»|>ect ' 



' to quinine, such as the C. PalntdUum, This was 

 the first occasion on which we reaj)ed the benefit 

 ' of what the Dutch hiid ilone. Some three or four 

 years afterwards the English (iovernnient sent out an 

 expeilition under Mr. t'lements Markham to I'eru 

 ?'Md Ecuador, and he introduced souM-thiut; like 

 , tnree distinct species. These were cyirried to the 

 I Neilgherries and planted there ; but our plantatif>ns 

 near the Himalayas were founded with seeds obtained 

 by Dr. jVnder.s^ni from the Dutch. Oouiing to the 

 present time the giirdtin at Huiteu/.org, us IVIr. Ilrady 

 Lad said, was very valuable, and most important work 

 had been done there. It was presided over for many 

 years by !>.-. SchietTer, whom he knew very well, and 

 on his death he was succeeded by Dr. Treub and 

 Dr. liurck, both of whom visited Kugland before 

 going there, and were, at the present time doing 

 most valuable work. During the last lour years they 

 had published a periodical called Aniutlen dc la Juidin 

 di: lii'itnizory, which contained some very valuable 

 papers. They had lately also founded a laboratory 

 there, the use of which, with the gardens, was open 

 I to auy students who might wish to s]»end some 

 time there. All these things showed great liberality 

 on the part of the Dutch ; and to their expt^rienco 

 I our own success in triiichona cultivation in India was 

 I very largely iltie. Dr. Masskarl, the veteran traveller, 

 , who laid the f(jundation of the whole (Mitt^riirise, was 

 ' still living, having retired for some twenty years; and 

 Dr. Spruce, who introduced the seeds of the l.'inch'infi 

 :<t/ccii'i'hra. was also living, and in this country. His 

 feeling with regard to both these nn'n was that 

 they had been very inadequately rewarded for the 

 important work they had done. It woulil bo very 

 well for that Society, if it could <lo so in its corpor- 

 ate Ci^)acity, to make some recognition of their services 

 In India he believ<;d there were four species cultiv- 

 ate<l, ('. succiruhi-a, C officinalis, C. Cat isaija, and 

 C. micra/ith<i, a very small mimber out of the whole 

 genus, which included about thirty. Pi'rhaps Professor 

 Bentley or Mr. Holmes might be able to say whether 

 there was any probability of other species being 

 cultivated with advantage. "With regard to the 0'. 

 Ledfjtnana, doctors disagreed. Dr. Treub considered 

 it a distinct species, whilst Mr. Holmes believed 

 it to be only a variety of the Cafi^ai/a. Oiuctionas 

 seemed something like brambhis in Mngland ; it seemed 

 almost impossible to segregate thi;m into distinct 

 specific types, and he believed some of the Ledt/erianaa 

 almost shaded off by degrees into the (Jafisaya. 



Professor jientley said he did not profess to havu 

 any special knowledge of the cinchonas, which could, 

 hi fact, only be invctstigated properly by studying 

 them in the countries where they were cultivated. 

 The question Mr. Baker had |)ut as to the likeli- 

 hood of other species yielrling a fair amount of 

 alkaloid was one for practical chemists to (iecide. 

 Mr. Baker had left him very little to say on the 

 history of the introduction of thwse barks, but there 

 was one point he wished particularly to lay stresa 

 upon, viz., that the Government did not pay sufticieut 

 attention to scientific men in this country. l''or a 

 number of years Dr. Koyle and others urged upon 

 the Government the importance of sending out aa 

 expedition to explore the cinchona districts, but 

 this was not done, and lie coulil quite confirm what 

 Mr. Bal*tr had said as to the sucwiss of the cultiv- 

 ation being very much due to the indefatigable 

 efforts of the Dutch. Whenever any appIif;ation was 

 made to the British (roverument for aid in explor- 

 ing the colonies or anything of that character, the 

 answer generally was that it was nry doubtful 

 whether any valuable results would be obtainetl, or 

 whether the thiug woulil i)e at all succcKsful. That, 

 of course, was not any answer, because « great 

 Government like the Kiiglish ought not to fiar any 

 expense in such mattirs. But iu the case of tho 

 cinchonas the results hail been most extraordinary, 

 for instea^l of the product diminishing, the result 

 of cultivation in India had been to largely increase 

 the product of quinine. 'J'liis was most importat 

 when the subject of iotroduciog new plants wn 



