DRUGS. 69 



Calisaya var. Ledgeriana began to attract a considerable 

 amount of attention about the year 1880. The following 

 history of it is given in the " Kew Report " for that 

 year: "The seed was collected in June, 1865, by a 

 trusted native servant of Mr. C. Ledger, from fifty trees 

 growing on the almost inaccessible banks of the River 

 Mamore in Bolivia, a place to which no botanist has ever 

 approached more nearly than 100 miles. It was sent to 

 London to the care of Mr. Ledger's brother, who sold half 

 to the Dutch Government, for Java, and half to Mr. 

 Money, a cinchona planter on the Nilghiri hills." From 

 the seeds purchased by the Netherlands Government and 

 sent to Java some 20,000 plants were raised. The name 

 -Ledgeriana appears to have been a plantation name (first 

 printed about 1873) \ised to distinguish the progeny of Mr. 

 Ledger's seed; the plant, however, was described in 1876 

 by the late Dr. Weddell as C. Calisaya var. Ledgeriana. 

 Dr. Trimen has since defined it as a distinct species, see 

 Journal of Botany for 1881, pp. 321-25. 



The purchase of these seeds put new life into the 

 cinchona cultivation in Java. The bark sent thence up to 



1872 had been almost entirely of an inferior quality, but in 



1873 it was found that the new kind gave 8 per cent, of 

 alkaloids, of which from 5i to 6^ was quinine. In the 

 following year this was greatly exceeded, one sample giving 

 a result of 12'97 alkaloids, ll'Ol being quinine ; while 

 other samples are reported as yielding the extraordinary 

 amount of 13'7 per cent, of quinine. The tree was con- 

 sequently cultivated in Java to a very large extent, the 

 plantations containing in 1880 no less than 443,270 trees, 

 and the nurseries 283,650 plants. From the seeds sent to 

 India 60,000 seedlings were raised. Dr. King, reporting 

 about this time to the Bengal Government, says, " After 

 seeing the Java Ledgerianas I have no doubt that our three 

 or four best kinds of Calisaya are precisely the same as 



