CINCHONACE^;. 



description 21. t. 2. C. purpurea Fl Peruv. ii. 52. t. 193. Cas- 

 carillo morado Ruiz Quinol. 67. Groves on the lower parts of 

 the Andes where it is cool at night, in the districts of Chinchao, 

 Pati, Muna, Iscutunam, Casapi, Casapillo and Chihuamccala 

 JR. and P. Mountain ridges of Panatahuas, Loxa, Jaen, and 

 other provinces, on low hills, Ruiz MSS. Cuchero Poppig. 

 Santa Fe". 



Young branches covered with a short close down. Leaves never 

 scrobiculate, when young rather thin, not shining, slightly downy on 

 both sides, especially on the under, and upon the petioles, sometimes 

 quite soft in those parts, when older quite smooth, much firmer, and 

 quite shining ; those near and among the inflorescence roundish, some- 

 times broader than long, tapering into a long stalk, or merely ovate, 

 for they vary very much upon the same specimen ; those below the 

 inflorescence ovate-oblong, or almost exactly oval, and acute. Pedun- 

 cles trichotomously branched, corymbose, many flowered, tomentose in 

 the axils of the upper leaves, forming a short and broad spreading 

 leafy thyrse, the flowers in which are by no means compactly arranged ; 

 the subdivisions are in fact almost at right angles with each other. 

 Pedicels and calyx-tube covered with a short close fur; the limb of the 

 latter downy only, with 5 shallow, ovate, acute teeth. Corolla with a 

 tomentose tube, much narrowed at the base, and almost six times as 

 long as that of the calyx ; limb deep purple, shaggy inside. Fruit 

 tomentose, narrow, oval, as thick at one end as the other, rather more 

 than an inch long. Of this Mr. Lambert's herbarium contains 7 spe- 

 cimens, and Dr. Thomson's 5, besides which I possess one from Santa 

 Fe de Bogota, collected by a pupil of Zea. It is probably the plant 

 intended in the drawing sent by Mutis to Linnaeus, under the name of 

 Cinchona peruviana, and now preserved in the Linnean herbarium ; and 

 it is quite certain that the principal part of the loose flowers accom- 

 panying the drawing belong to it. No species can well be more dis- 

 distinctly marked, as will be seen by the preceding description, not- 

 withstanding that it varies so much in the form of its leaves. Tt is not 

 a little curious that Vahl, who first described this from Peruvian spe- 

 cimens given him by Joseph Jussieu, should not have discovered that 

 the specimens in the Linnean herbarium, which he examined, belonged 

 to it. 



It is one of the species called in Peru" Cascarillo bobo de hoja morada 

 according to Ruiz, who in the Quinologia says that the bark is not 

 known separately in commerce, but is mixed with that of C. lanceolata, 

 hirsuta, and nitida; it appears to possess all their good qualities. But 

 in his manuscript History he alters this opinion, and classes it only 

 among the second rate barks. 



Poppig, who calls it Case, boba colorada, describes this species as " a 

 tree of considerable elevation and circumference, by which alone it 

 might be discriminated from the allied species of Cinchona, as well as 

 by its very large and membranaceous leaves, which are covered on the 

 underside with broad, prominent, violet-coloured veins, that are so 

 numerous in the young state as to give their own hue to the entire 

 leaf. The bark, in a fresh state, is extremely bitter, and may probably 

 be found useful for making cheap decoctions, as it can be sold at a very 

 low price. It is not now universally collected, but formerly served for 

 occasionally adulterating the better kinds ; an imposition, however, that 



420 



