168 e THE CALISAYA BARK-PLANT. 
blunt, smooth plates. The flowers appear in panicles at the ends of the lateral shoots, are of a pale 
pink colour before expansion, almost white when fully open, and emit a most agreeable weak 
balsamic fragrance. The calyx is a small superior five-toothed cup, covered with fine close down 
like the branches of the panicle. The corolla has a cylindrical tube about half an inch long, and a 
reflexed five-lobed limb, copiously fringed with long transparent club-shaped hairs. The stamens are 
five, and can just be seen when looking down into the tube of the corolla. 
Dr. Weddell} in his Natural History of the Quinquinas, states that :— 
“From this species is obtained the most precious of the Jesuit's barks used in medicine, 
employed from time immemorial in trade under the name of Calisaya bark, but whose origin was 
wholly unknown till now. 
“ I have already observed that this tree has hitherto been only found in Peru, in the southern 
part of the province of Carabaya. The results at which I have arrived in endeavouring to determine 
exactly the limits of the region it occupies seem curious enough to be noted in this place. Thus, 
after having studied the plant in all the ancient province of Yungas in La Paz, to the north of 
17° 8. lat., I followed it into that of Larecaja or Sorata, thence into Caupolican or Apolobamba, the 
place of its first discovery ; and all my care has failed in enabling me to find it north of those points. 
An imaginary barrier exists then beyond which the plant will not go, notwithstanding that the 
neighbouring valleys appeared to be of the very same nature ; a fact that can scarcely be explained, 
unless upon the supposition that peculiarities do exist in the most southern valleys of Carabaya 
which are wanting in the north ; and this may possibly be owing to the manner in which the rivers 
are distributed. I believe, in fact, that I am justified in referring those of the district in question to 
a particular system, possibly dependent upon the Bolivian system, and that those in the other parts 
of the province lose themselves on the contrary by the N. of Peru, in the Upper Amazon. This 
unexplained attachment which certain plants manifest for natural regions, and especially for valleys, 
is by no means without example; and now that Geographical Botany is obtaining serious attention, 
science will be enriched more and more with analogous facts. 
“The great reputation of the Quinquina Calisaya has caused such a demand for it, that it will 
certainly some day disappear completely from commerce, and we shall be obliged to be content with other 
sorts now despised. It has already disappeared around inhabited places, except in the form of a 
bush ; and if by mere chance a small tree has remained unobserved in the midst of a forest, its head 
no sooner becomes visible than the hatchet brings it down. For my own part, when I have wished 
. to see the species in all its vigour, it has been necessary to pass long days on foot in the forests, to’ 
penetrate them by paths which were scarcely passable, and to undergo some of the fatigues which 
are the ordinary lot of the poor Cascarilleros." 
Its native station was found by this enterprising traveller to be on the slopes and precipices of 
mountains as high as 4500 or 5400 feet in the hottest valleys of Bolivia and Southern Peru, in 
forests between 13° and 169-30“ S. lat and 68°—72° W. long. in the Bolivian provinces of 
Enquisivi, Yungas, Larecaja, and Caupolican, and in Carabaya in Peru. 
This plant has been found to require very peculiar management. Mr. George Gordon, under 
whose care it flowered in the Society’s Garden, explains at length in the “Journal” in what way the 
specimen was treated which bloomed so abundantly in the Society’s stove, and the reader is referred 
thither for information. 
