BOTANICAL ORIGIN. ll 
49, approaches the Cinchonez to some extent in this respect, 
trom which, however, it must be excluded for morphological 
reasons. 
Cascarilla, the Remijias, Pimentelia, the Ladenbergias, and the 
Macrocnemum species, in opposition to the Cinchonas, are much 
more widely distributed through the tropical and a portion of the 
sub-tropical countries of South America, and by no means confined 
to the mountains. Among the Spanish and Portuguese population 
they are all comprehended under the name of Cascarillos bobos,' 
spurious or false cinchonas. The barks of many of the trees 
belonging to this class are considered in their native country to 
possess medicinal properties, and occasionally found their way to 
Europe, particularly before the discovery of quinine. After this 
period, however, it was ascertained that the so-called spurious 
cinchona barks, which had already been regarded in Europe as 
dubitable, contained either no alkaloid at all, or at least no anti- 
febrile alkaloid, and a general inclination to the view was adopted 
that only such barks contain cinchona alkaloids which possess the 
structure described on page 35. This conception was corrected in 
the year 1871 by an acquaintance with the Cinchona cuprea, which 
occupies an intermediate position, in that it belongs anatomically 
to the false, but chemically to the good cinchona barks, which 
contain alkaloid. It is probable that in the course of time other 
useful barks of this class will be brought to light from the above- 
mentioned genera of Cascarilla, Remijia and Pimentelia. The 
bark collectors, who are familiar with the appearance of the true 
Cinchonas, will therefore presumably in future restrict themselves 
less from a closer acquaintance with other Cinchonas, since the 
Cinchona cuprea has proved itself valuable. 
_ The Cinchonas or fever-bark trees, Cascarillos finos, are ever- 
green, with mostly leathery, shining leaves, which are traversed by 
a strong mid-rib and finely veined by delicate lateral nerves. The 
thick leaf-stalk, which is often of a fine purple color, attains at the 
most one-third the length of the leaf, but usually remains shorter. 
In outline the leaves are ovate, obovate, or nearly circular, in some 
species lanceolate, seldom somewhat cordate (as in C. cordifolia 
1 Bobo signifies in Spanish, stupid or foolish. In a pamphlet printed at Lisbon in 1799, 
Quinographia portugueza ou collecgao de varias memortas sobre 22 especies de Quinas, 
etc. (64 pages and 17 plates, or, in another edition, 192 pages and 14 plates), the minorite 
José mariano de la concepcion velloso, from the province of Rio de Janeiro, has 
described 22 Cinchonas, which all belong to the “‘spurious’’ class. It will be interesting 
to determine whether the bark of some of these does not indeed contain the cinchona 
alkaloids. How very improbable this is, is shown by the cinchona rosa from Tucuman, 
mentioned on page 50, Note 6, and also possibly the Tolima bark (page 52.) 
