24 CINCHONA BARKS. 
them, at an elevation of 700 to 2900 meters (2275 to 9425 feet), 
was prominently noted by Humboldt as the region of the tropical 
oaks and Cinchonas. : 
Weddell excluded the cinchonez which generally inhabit lower 
altitudes and do not contain alkaloid, and drew for the zone 
of the true cinchona trees the boundaries of elevation at 1600 
and 2400 meters (5200 and 7800 feet). The lowest altitude at 
which the true Cinchonas occur in their native country is at an 
elevation of 1200 meters (3900 feet), and the uppermost line is to 
be accepted as 3270 meters (10,630 feet), or, in accordance with 
KarsTEN, as 3500 meters (11,375 feet). With the distance from 
the equator the average altitude of the Cinchona zone becomes 
considerably decreased, although the Cascarillos finos do not read- 
ily descend lower than 2000 meters (6500 feet). C. succirubra 
occurs exceptionally as low as 800 meters (2600 feet); but by its 
very large, not precisely leathery, leaves, as also by the slender 
fruits, likewise does not agree with most of the other species of 
valuable Cinchona. 
SECTION V. 
THE CULTURE OF THE CINCHONAS. 
The earnest desire to subject the Cinchonas to the careful at- 
tention of forest husbandry, in more conveniently located districts, 
must have excited activity as soon as some scientific information 
had been obtained regarding these trees. Even Condamine, to 
whom we are indebted for the first description of a Cinchona, had 
sought to transport young cinchona plants to Europe, but lost 
them by the waves at the mouth of the Amazon river.* Mutis 
was probably the first who, in Mariquita (see section 17), oc- 
cupied himself with the cultivation of the Cinchonas.’ In earlier 
times the Jesuits in Bolivia had also already imposed upon the 
Cascarilleros the obligation to plant 5 seedlings in the form of a 
cross +:+ for each cinchona tree that was felled.3 
The idea of transferring the cinchona trees to the old world was 
ever newly revived,* and experiments relating thereto were also 
not completely wanting. Suchan one, for example, emanated, in 
. H. von Bergen, Monogr. der China, 117, after Condamine’s Relation d’ un voyage, 
erc. : 
2 A von Humboldt. ‘ Ueber die Chinawdlder in Siidamerica.”’ Der Gesellschaft 
Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin Magazin fiir die neusten Entdeckungen in der 
Naturkunde, \ (1807), 57-68. 
8 Howard. Last Indian Plantations, Ill, 49. 
* Compare the English B/ue Book of 1863, fol. 1; Delondre et Soubeiran (Title under 
section 18); Oudemans Handleiding tot de Pharmocognosie, Amsterdam 1880, p. 146. 
ae 
