14 



NUMBER OF SPECIES. 



Chap. I. 



species of Cliinchonoe has been estabb'shed by Dr. Weddell at 

 nineteen, and two doubtful ; ^ but even the classification of 

 this eminent authority, published in 1849, already requires 

 much alteration and revision. For instance : Dr. AYeddell 

 gives no place to the " red-bark " species, the richest in 

 alkaloids, and one of the most important, which, through the 

 recent investigations of Mr. Spruce, will now probably be 

 admitted by botanists as a distinct sjDecies, the C. succiruhra 

 (Pa von). A new grey bark now introduced into India as 

 C. Peruviana (Howard), and the C. PaJmdiana (Howard), a 

 worthless kind, cultivated by the Dutch in Java, will also be 

 received as additional species. It seems likely also that the 

 C. Condaminea requires to be divided into two or three dis- 

 tinct species ; while the C. Boliviana (Weddell) will sink into 

 a mere variety of the C. Calisaya. 



The commercially valuable species, however, comprise but 

 a small proportion of the whole ; and, as all these have now 



