CHINCHONA OR PERUVIAN BARK. 371 



fciizes. In the finer species they are lanceolate, with a shin- 

 ing surface of bright green, traversed by crimson veins and 

 petioles of the same colour. The flowers are very small, and 

 hang in clustering panicles like lilacs. They are generally of 

 a deep roseate colour, paler near the stalk, and dark crimson 

 within the tube, with white curly hairs bordering the laciniae 

 of the corolla. The colour of one species is entirely white. 

 They send forth a delicious fragrance, which scents the air in 

 their neighbourhood. 



The region round the little town of Loxa, on the southern 

 frontier of Ecuador, is the original home of the chinchona. 

 In its sheltered ravines and dense forests were found those 

 precious trees which first made known to the world the 

 healing virtues of Peruvian bark. They grow at a height 

 above the sea of from 6200 to 8200 feet. The trees are 

 there from 30 to 48 feet high, with three or more stems 

 growing from the same root. The leaves are like those 

 already described. The bark is black when exposed to the 

 sun and wind, but of a brownish colour when surrounded by 

 other trees ; and is always covered with lichens. The bark 

 from the Loxa region is known as crown bark; that from 

 Chimborazo, as red bark ; while in the Huanaco region of 

 Northern Peru gray bark is produced. 



When first the demand for the bark was established, bark- 

 collectors, called cascarilleros, entered the forests in parties 

 of a dozen or more, supplied with food and tools. At their 

 head was a searcher (cafeador), who, climbing a high tree, 

 looked out for the raanclias, or clumps of chinchona-trees, 

 which experience taught him to know by their dark coloiu* 



• 



and the peculiar reflection of the light from their leaves amidst 

 those endless expanses of forest. Having marked the spot, 



