380 CINCHONA BARKS. 
= to become bare), first deprives the exterior of the stem of the 
often luxuriant climbing and parasitic plants, and begins immediately 
also in most cases to scrape off the sapless layer of bark, after the 
same has been rendered soft by beating. In order to detach the 
valuable inner bark, longitudinal and transverse incisions are made 
with chisels, as far as can be reached on the stem. The tree is then 
felled, and, together with the branches, divided, and the stripping 
finally completed. In most cases, especially after previous beat- 
ing with a mallet, the bark, notwithstanding its slight coherence 
in many species, separates easily from the wood. 
Any considerable quantities of the barks must, at least in many 
districts, be quickly dried by a fire, which is usually built upon the 
floor of lightly constructed huts. By means of the stems of palm 
leaves, bamboo stalks, or other suitable parts of plants, large hur- 
dles are constructed over the fire, upon which the barks are from 
time to time rearranged. The walls of the huts are also constructed 
of the same lattice-work, and likewise receive large pieces of the 
bark. In New Granada the drying of the bark is effected almost 
exclusively over a fire. 
The process of drying, however, is not permitted to be conducted 
too hastily, even when it is required to immediately protect the 
barks from mould, as but slightly excessive heat destroys the alka- 
loids. With this imperfect arrangement, which is the only one 
' possible under the described conditions, the article apparently only 
then assumes a salable appearance when the drying has been 
continued for three or four weeks. 
In Southern Peru and Bolivia, however, according to Weddell’s 
representation, even the thickest Calisaya barks are dried only by 
exposure to the sun, without requiring the aid of a fire. 
That the bark of the branches is not deprived of the corky layer, 
requires no explanation. With regard to the barks of the stem, 
it depends in part upon the commercial use, whether they are fur- 
nished unaltered or peeled; but in part the anatomical conditions 
also probably have some influence. Where an abundant and 
deeply penetrating formation of bork occurs, as in C. Calisaya, 
the removal of the worthless cork is very easily and completely 
effected ; in other species, on the contrary, such a natural separation 
of the corky layer does not take place to the same degree, and the 
altogether too circumstantial process of peeling is omitted. 
From the report of the personal observations of Wellcome in 
Ecuador, a Cascarillero, after having espied from some higher 
point a tract of forest that indicates sufficient value, procures, by 
the payment of a small fee, a title from the Government. The 
