74 



inexhaustible ? 2d. Have we within the limits of our own country the 

 proper climatic and other conditions to grow the tree with success ? 

 With regard to the first, the reckless destruction of the trees is shown, 

 and the fact that the supplies from South America are not nearly suffi- 

 cient to meet the demand, the price being kept so high as to place this 

 inestimable remedy beyond the means of millions of natives of fever- 

 visited regions. In reply to the gecond question, facts are cited to show 

 that the cinchona may be propagated with success in California, in 

 which State localities may be found where it may be grown as readily' 

 as in India, where its cultivation has been attended with success. The 

 association recommends the appointment by Congress of a committee of 

 scientific men to investigate the i^racticability of cinchona cultivation 

 in the United States, with authority to visit South American coun- 

 tries, and to negotiate for and obtain a x^roper quantity of seeds and 

 l)lants. 



A copy of the memorial having been referred to the Department by 

 Dr. L. J. Deal, of Philadelphia, chairman of the memorial committee, 

 for the i)urpose of ascertaining its opinions upon the general subject, 

 the Commissioner expressed the following views : 



From the records of this Department, I Icaru that efforts to procure plants of the 

 hest species of the cinchona were made several years ago, and at the jiresent time 

 there are several hundred i)lants fit for transplanting, as soon as a suitahle site can be 

 ascertained, and a suitable and responsibje i^erson found who will give the j)lants a fair 

 trial, this being the mode by which the Department introduces new seeds and plants. 



The request of the American Medical Association, that Congress' appoint a commis- 

 sion of scientific men to proceed to South America for the puri^ose of determining the 

 best species for transplanting, seems to me altogether unnecessary, since such deter- 

 mination has already been fully made by other nations, whose deductions cannot, I 

 presume, be questioned, as the best botanists and chemists have been consulted, and 

 their conclusions published to the world. With reference to procuring plants from the 

 native woods, it would be a very precarious and doubtful method, in view of the fact 

 that yoiang plants, as well as seeds, can now be procured through ordinary commercial 

 channels, at a comparatively triflTug cost, and in such quantities as may be desired. 



It seems to me that the only question to be determined, is that of a proper locality 

 for the test of growth ; and, in this connection, it occurs to me that the kind offer of 

 the Sacramento Medical Society to endeavor to find a proper habitat for the cinchona 

 tree, offers the most practicable mode of securing such test. The locality being found, 

 we furnish the plants for the test. 



It strikes me forcibly that it is a mistake to suppose that the cinchona will find proper 

 condition of climate immediately below the sequoia. The requirements of these two 

 genera are too widely different to warrant this conclusion. The sequoia endures a zero 

 cold, while the cinchona, under similar conditions of treatment, is injured when 

 the thermometer descends to 32°, or freezing-point. Neither is it an absolute necessity 

 that a mountainous region should be selected ; the great point is one of freedom, en- 

 tire freedom from frost ; cultivation will modify other peculiarities necessary to suc- 

 cess. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL RECORD. 



BY TOWNEND GLOVER, ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The wingless grasshoppek, or " cricket,'' or Utah. — In com- 

 mon with the grasshoppers which are so numerous and destructive in 

 the Western States, there is another orthopterous insect which swarms 

 in untold numbers in Southern Idaho and Utah, and is known by the 

 common name of " cricket." This is the Anabrus simplex of Haldemann, 

 (Fig. 4,) and is mentioned in Stanst>ury's Great Salt Lake Expedition. 

 Eev. Cyrus Thomas, who has studied the habits of this insect in Utah, 

 states that it is found on the ground in immense swarms, and that in 



