COLLECTION OF THE BARKS. 83 
of moss, and in Java the Alang-Alang grass (Imperata Konigii) is 
applied to this purpose. When the covering of the peeled stems 
is effected by either of these methods, there is to be distinguished : 
1, the unaltered bark, which is first removed ; 2, the strips of bark 
which are allowed to remain, and afterward subjected to treatment 
with moss—the so-called “mossed bark;” and 3, the “renewed 
bark.” If it is indeed possible through a long series of years to 
separate the bark of the Cinchona trees in strips, as above de- 
scribed, and even to effect an increase of alkaloid, at least in the 
renewed bark, this method would possess much that is alluring. It 
remains, however, questionable whether the trees are thereby 
capable of regaining strength. The mossing process was discov- 
ered and very strongly recommended by Mac Ivor, the meritorious 
director of the Cinchona plantations at Ootacamund.’ 
Greater security for the maintenance of the trees is perhaps 
presented in the procedure suggested by Bernelot Moens, in Java, 
in the year 1880, according to which the bark is not removed to 
the extent of its full development, but only “scraped.” Much more 
care also is taken to leave a sufficient coating of bark on the entire 
circumference of the stem. 
The idea readily suggested itself, in the case of the Cinchonas, to 
employ that form of utilization which admits of application with 
woody plants, as far as this relates to the most abundant obtain- 
ment of a constituent or a definite amount of such, entirely without 
consideration of the further development of the plant itself. This 
is the method of stripping, which is in use in Europe, especially in 
the case of the oaks,’ also in Sicily, with regard to the manna-ash,3 
and in Ceylon with cinnamon.t| The Cinchonas are subjected to a 
similar treatment the more willingly, since the root barks, which fall 
off by the occasional clearing of the cinchona plantations, have proved 
themselves very valuable. According to this method of procedure, 
or coppicing, which is now customary, especially in Java and Cey- 
lon, the stem, at the age of about 8 years, is felled 15 centimeters 
(6 inches) above the ground, and stripped, whereupon side-shoots 
develop, which, after another 8 years, furnish bark rich in alkaloid. 
By this stripping process the roots may also be obtained in pro- 
portionate amount; an operation especially related to this is dis- 
tinguished as “uprooting.” The root barks, which were formerly 
1 Blue Book, more completely described in the illustrated publications of Mac Ivor, 
mentioned in Section XVIII. With relation to Java, compare the annual reports of 
Bernelot Moens, also Oudemans, Pharmakognosie, p. 163. - eS: sie 
2 Compare Fliickiger, Pharmakognosie, p. 473. sc 
8 Ibid, p. 21. * Ibid, p. 565. 
