CINCHONA BARKS: 
, THEIR 
HISTORY, BOTANICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERS. 
SECTION I. 
BOTANICAL ORIGIN. 
By the expressions Crzchona barks or Peruvian barks, Latin cor- 
tices cinchone or cortices chine, German chinarinden, French écorces 
de quinguina, Spanish guina, are designated such barks as contain 
alkaloids of a particular group, which may directly be denoted as 
the cinchona bases. These anti-febrile alkaloids have, as yet, been 
met with only in the barks of the cinchonez. 
In the very numerous family of the Rubiaceze the Ginchonee 
belong to the series of those having dry, many-seeded, capsular 
fruits, and scale-like, deciduous stipules; and within this circle they 
form one of those groups which are characterized by an expanded, 
branched, not contracted or capitate inflorescence. Both valves ot 
the capsule contain a large number of small seeds, winged all 
around by a broad membrane, which is very irregularly toothed 
or lacerated at the edge (Plate III); the embryo is embedded in 
richly developed endosperm. 
The division of the Eucinchonee presents a valvate, not re- 
flexed or imbricated corolla (Plate II), and angular funiculi in 
the middle of the partition of the capsule. The genus Ginchona 
is distinguished finally by a tolerably long, cylindrical, or only 
very slightly contracted or expanded corolla tube. The five flatly 
expanded lobes of the corolla, which are small in dimensions, are 
of delicate texture, fringed at the margin (Plate II), and of a 
whitish, purple, bright red or somewhat violet color. The period 
of flowering of the Cinchonas continues, at least in India, through 
the greater part of the year, so that fruits and flowers are usually 
present at the same time. The styles of the latter sometimes pro- 
ject beyond the corolla tube (Plate II, c), and are sometimes en- 
closed (Plate II, b); a third form of the flower with almost sessile 
stigmas and longer stamens may also be observed. While the 
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