154 FLORA HOMGOPATHICA. 
Materia Medica, we are indebted for the discovery of the 
homeopathic law. 
Description.—The whole species are either tall shrubs or 
considerable forest trees, commonly evergreen and of great 
beauty, both in foliage and in flower. In consequence of the 
excessive demand for their bark, they seldom attain full growth. 
Lindley enumerates twenty-six species, of which twenty-one are 
well known. 
GrocrapuicaL Disrrisution.— South America: in the 
vicinity of Loxa, on the Peruvian frontier of Colombia ; Santa 
Fé de Bogota; from the forests of Huanuco, in Peru, ten de- 
grees south of the line; from the neighbourhood of Apolo- 
bamba and La Paz, in Bolivia, or Upper Peru, between five and 
eight degrees still farther south; in the elevated valleys of the 
Andes, from 1,200 to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. 
The best bark is produced from trees growing on a dry 
rocky soil. The bark is collected from May till November, by 
natives, who are called from this occupation, Cascarilleros. The 
trees are sometimes cut down for the purpose, but often the 
bark is stripped from the trees as they stand. The first process 
is the best, because if the trees are cut down, new shoots 
speedily spring up, and become in their turn fit for peeling in 
six or seven years. On stripping the trees, the whole bark, com- 
prising the epidermis, rete-mucosum, cortex, and liber, is re- 
moved. The drying is commonly conducted, not in the woods 
where it is collected, but at the nearest inhabited spot, and 
great care is observed in the process, as the commercial value 
of the bark depends upon the brightness of its colour inter- 
nally, and likewise on the epidermis being uninjured and 
covered with the lichens which are naturally attached to it. 
So indiscriminate and reckless was the destruction of this 
valuable tree, that the Bolivian government found it necessary 
in 1838 to issue an edict, prohibiting its collection for five 
years (Christison.) 
Parts usep In Mepicinz, AND Mong or PREPARATION.— 
