XXI 



AMBATO 261 



To Sir William Hooker 



AMBATO, March 12, 1860. 



I have succeeded in hiring the forests producing 

 the Cascarilla roja after about ten times as much 

 correspondence as would have been necessary in 

 any civilised country, and I am now getting together 

 a staff of workmen (no easy task in these revolu- 

 tionary times) with which to enter the forest as soon 

 as the rains abate. I am also in treaty with the 

 owners of the woods near Loja which produce the 

 Cinchona condaminea ; but as this species seems to 

 flower and fruit exactly at the same time as the 

 Cascarilla roja, and the localities of the two species 

 are fifteen clays' journey apart (under the most 

 favourable circumstances), it is plainly impossible 

 that I can see with my own eyes the seeds of both 

 species gathered, which is the only way to be sure 

 of having the right sort. . . . 



REPORT OX THE EXPEDITION TO PROCURE SHEDS 

 A XI) PLANTS OF THE CINCHONA SUCCIRl'HK / 

 OR RED I'.ARK TREE 



Towards the end of the year 1859, I was entrusted by Her 

 Majesty's Secretary of State for India with a commission to pro- 

 cure seeds and plants of the Red P>ark tree, and I proceeded to 

 take the necessary steps for entering on its 



Within the aMvttaincd limits of the true Red Hark it exists (or 

 rather existed up to a recent period) in all the valleys of the 

 Andes which debouch into the Guayaquilian plain. Many years 

 ago it was obtained in lar^e i|ua:ititics in the valley of Alausi, 

 below an Indian hamlet called Einje, on the northern side of the 

 Chanchan (nearly opposite to Puma-c<>cha, which is on the 

 southern side of the same stream), but it has IODL; been c\hau-t< d 

 there. 



