Insect Enemies of the Cinchona. 23 1 



three months grown from 9 to 21 mches, while the few that 

 remained on their old site had only gained 9 or 10 inches in 

 height, a fact which seemed incontestably to prove that the 

 new site was the better adapted to them. In Jmie, 1857, the 

 first blossom had made its appearance on one of the Con- 

 danimea^ but it was not till May, 1858, that the majority of the 

 trees were in full bloom, or that the ripening fruit began to 

 make its appearance. When all the jfruits ripen, Dr. Jun- 

 ghuhn told us he was in hopes he would secure 80,000 fruit, 

 which, as each fruit contains about 40 seeds, would provide 

 him with 3,200,000 seedlings. It is not indeed a question 

 merely of ripe and at the same time fertilized seeds, but 

 chiefly whether the bark of this plant contains in the land of 

 its adoption, and under different conditions, that costly 

 alkaloid quinine, which seems daily to become more indis- 

 pensable in the science of medicine. 



Despite the most anxious solicitude there had long been 

 remarked in Tjipodas a gradual decay of some of the shoots, 

 but it was only a few days before our arrival that after a 

 most minute zealous inquiry the cause of this phenomenon 

 was discovered. A minute insect, scarcely ^V of an inch in 

 length, of the Bostrichus species, proved to be the foe of these 

 plants. The holes which are burrowed by this insect, are 

 drilled quite through the wood of the stem and branches into 

 the very pith, in which it finally stops and lays its eggs. 

 The Cinchona trees thus bored through are irremediably 

 ruined, but there is always the hope that, as the roots remain 



