228 Voyage of the Novara, 



self been urgently requested to undertake tlie duty, entrusted 

 witli a mission to Peru, whence he was to bring back off- 

 shoots, and germinating seeds, of the various species of 

 Cinchona from which quinine is obtainable. Two years 

 later, a Dutch man-of-war was specially despatched to Callao, 

 the harbour of Lima, to convey Hasskarl with his valuable 

 booty. That gentleman accordingly brought away with him 

 four well-rooted young trees, and the seeds of four species of 

 Cinchona,* but only the saplings gave promise of success, 

 whereas the greater part of the seeds, on being sown, were 

 lost. M. Hasskarl has had the reproach cast upon him, that 

 during his expensive residence of two years' duration in 

 Peru, he should have collected such few data of \hQ higher 

 and lower limits of vegetation of the China plant, and the 

 conditions of soil and mountain temperature under which it 

 best flourishes, of the general influence exercised on it by 

 storm and humidity, as also upon the annual quantity of rain 

 it requires, whether a shady or sunny place of growth be 

 best adapted to it, the period of flowering and fructification, 

 the alterations which may be rendered necessary by its habits 

 of growth at various points, as to what are its natural 

 enemies, and how far its alkaloid properties are affected by 

 the greater or less elevation above the sea of the spot in 

 which it is growing, &c., &c. Nay, some persons went so 

 far as to allege that the botanist had never seen one single 



* These four species were Cinchona Calisaya, C. Condanhnea, C. Lanceolata, and 

 C. Ovata. 



