30 ORD. XIV. Rubiacez. ' CINCHONA. 
CINCHONA OBLONGIFOLIA.* 
This ¢ree rises to a considerable height; its stem is (single?) round, and 
erect, with a smooth, brownish, or ash-coloured bark; the older branches are 
smooth, round, and of a rusty colour; the younger ones obtusely quadran- 
gular, leafy, and of a reddish colour; the /eaves, when full-grown, from one 
to two feet long, of an oblong-oval shape, and stand opposite, supported on 
semi-round petioles of a purple colour; the stipules are supra-axillary, inter- 
foliaceous, opposite, contiguous, united at the base, and ofan obovate figure ; 
_ the flowers are produced in large, erect, compound, terminal, panicles, and 
placed upon long, brachiated, many-flowered peduncles ; the calyx is small, 
five-toothed, and of a purple colour ; the corolla white, and odorous ; the ji- 
laments are very short, inserted into the tube of the corolla; anthers oblong, 
bifid at the base, and situated below the middle of the tube of the corolla ; 
the capsules large, oblong, obscurely striated, somewhat curved, and crowned _ 
‘by the calyx.+ This tree is found on the Andes, growing in woods, on the 
banks of mountain streams, and particularly abundant at Chinchao, Rio- 
bamba, and Cuchero, flowering in June and July. Figure (a) the corolla, 
spread open, shewing the anthers, (4) the-pistil, (c) the calyx.t wy he 
Chemical Properties. The recent discoveries of the French chemists, MM. 
Caventou and Pelletier supersede all the previous researches, so far as 
medicine is concerned, into the nature of the cinchonas. Vauquelin ascer- 
_ tained that there were three, if not four, classes of cinchona-bark, differing 
essentially in their chemical constitution. The first class precipitates astrin- 
* The Cinchona oblongifolia is thus characterized by Mr. Lambert :— 
Cinchona oblongifolia. Leaves oblong or cordate; on both sides, as well as the 
pp rough with dense hairs; panicle between britallinte and corymbose, rough 
airs; segments of the hairy corolla linear, stamens and‘siyle included ; anthers 
Mi the length of the filaments ; stigma bipartite ; capsules ovate. 
To this Mr. Lambert refers tite cNoki oblongifolia of Mutis, MSS. Humb. in Magaz. 
Rohde, Monogr. Humb. Nov. Gen. p. 401. (exelading the —_— of “Fl. Peruv. & 
Ruiz. Quinolog.) 
+ Flora Peruvian, ij. 33—196. 
{ For our figure and — we are indebted to bi ii. of the Fl. Peruv. 
