350 



RUBIACE^. 



The expedition of Spruce was successful, but was also attended with 

 niuch difficulty and danger, of which there are vivid pictures in the 

 interesting narratives by himself and by Cross, published in the Par- 

 liamentary Returns of 1863 and 1806.^ 



The service entrusted to Pritchett was also efficiently performed; 

 and he succeeded in bringing to Southampton six cases containing 

 plants of G. micrantha and G. nitida, besides a large supply of seeds. 



Some important supplies of plants and seed for British India have 

 likewise been obtained from the Dutch plantations in Java. Seeds of 

 C. landfolia, the tree affording the valuable bark of New Granada, 

 were procured through Dr. Karsten. 



Previously to the arrival in India of the first consignment of plants, 

 careful inquiries were instituted from a meteorological and (reoWical 



This 



pomt of view, as to the localities most adapted for the cultivation, 

 resulted in the selection for the first trial of certain spots among the 

 Nedgherry (or Nilgiri) Hills on the south-west coast of India and in the 

 Madras Presidency. Of this district, the chief town is Ootocamund (or 

 Utakamand), situated about GO miles south of Mysore and the same 

 distance_ from the Indian Ocean. Here the first plantation was esta- 

 bhshed m a woody ravine, 7,000 feet above the sea-level, a spot pro- 

 nounced by Mr. Markham to be exceedingly analogous, as respects 

 vegetation and climate, to the Cinchona valleys of Carabaya. Other 

 plantations were formed in the same neighbourhood, and so rapid was 

 the propag-ation, that in September 1866, there were more than U 



yMcin ali 



Hills 



The species 



1872 



trees of private planters. The largest are about 30 feet high, with 

 trunks over 3 feet in girth. The area of the Government plantations 

 on the Neilgherry Hills is 950 



acres. 



Plantations have also been made in the coflfee-producing districts of 

 vvynaad, and m Coorg, Travancore and Tinnevelly, in all instances, we 

 believe, as private speculations. 



tmchona plantations have been established bv the Government of 

 India m the valleys of the Himalaya in British Sikkim,^ and some have 

 Deen started m the same region by private enterprise. In the former 

 there were on the 31st March 1870, more than U millions of plants 

 permanently placed, the species growing best being G. succiruhra mf 

 siS • ?^"- -^^ Cinchona plantation of Rungbi nelr Dag'iling (British 



WesVp?n^ T'"f '^ ?^^^ ^'^^^ ^^^e«- I^ the Kangra valley of the 

 ^ZT ^'™^^a, plantations have been commenced, as well as m the 

 i3ombay Presidency, and in British Burma. 



aud the collections fomecl by Ilasakarl 

 Markham and Pritchett almost^all perthe i 



ordered by the H '""" ^ ^""^ '"^^ ^"^^'«. 

 printed 20 Marc??Rr^ °^ CommonB to be 



» Blue Book , Oh- "-^"^ ^^ "^""^ ^866. 

 1870. p. 30) -K , S .t?^ Cultivation. 



gherry plantations, is that of Wd ■" 

 Graham Mclvor, who by his rare F''**^"'" . 

 skill and sagacity in the cultivation »" 

 management of the tree, has renaei.^ 

 most signal services in its propagai 



India. , ^j\. 



» Moral and materinl profjress and coj 

 Hon of India during 1871-72, presentea v 



Parliament 1873. p. 33. ^ ...m 



* The first annual Report dates n 

 1862 to 1863 ; I am indebted to Vv. xv 

 for that of 1876-1877.— F- A. F. 



