Capabilities for producing Peruvian Bark. 1 03 



inhabitants of tlie Indies, and the adjacent islands. The 

 Areca pahn, with its graceful straight stem and elegant tuft 

 of leaves, is indigenous to the entire group, and is found 

 in considerable quantities. With the enormous demand for 

 it as a salivatorj, as also as an article of medicine, it might, 

 had the natives the slightest turn for cultivation, yield a 

 large profit as an article of commerce. The Betel shrub is 

 also found in large quantities in these islands, and needs but 

 little looking after. 



The wealth of the forest in ornamental timber, and wood 

 fit for building purposes, is so great that, if carefully sur- 

 veyed and judiciously thinned, they would not only furnish 

 the settler with cleared soil suitable for cultivation, but would 

 likewise permit an immense profit to be realized.* 



The Nicobar Islands had been recommended by a learned 

 member of the Society of Physicians of Vienna, as a special 

 subject of inquiry as to whether this group were not by posi- 

 tion, conditions of soil, and climate, particularly suitable 

 for the cultivation of the Peruvian bark tree, whose im- 

 portance for medical purposes is daily increasing. So far as 



* With respect to the resemblance if not indeed identity of the vegetation of the 

 Nicobar Archipelago, with that of the surrounding islands, and the mainland, we 

 beg to refer here to the excellent work of an Austrian naturahst, the learned Dr. 

 Heifer, who, stricken in the flower of his days by the poisoned arrow of a native of 

 the Andaman Islands, fell a victim to his zeal for travel. To the Imperial Royal 

 Geographical Society of Vienna, science is indebted for the German edition of this 

 important information, under the title of the Published and UnpubHshed Works of 

 Dr. J. W. Heifer upon the Tenasserm Provinces, the Mergins Archipelago, and the 

 Andaman Islands, in the third volume of its Proceedings for 1859. 



