22 "CROWN BARKS" OF Chap. II. 



beautiful tree," he continues, " which is adorned Avith leaves 

 above five inches long and two broad, growing in dense 

 forests, seems always to aspire to rise above its neighbours. 

 As its upper branches wave to and fro in the wind, their red 

 and shining foliage produces a strange and peculiar effect, 

 recognisable from a great distance."^ It varies much in the 

 shape of the leaves, according to the altitude at which it 

 grows, and bark-collectors themselves would be deceived if 

 they did not know the tree by the glands, so long unob- 

 served by botanists. The O. Condaminea described by Hum- 

 boldt is the same as the C. Uritusinga of Pavon. It once 

 yielded great quantities of thick trunk bark, but, owing to 

 reckless felling through a course of years, it is now almost 

 exterminated, and its bark is rarely met with in commerce. 

 The distinguished botanist Don Francisco Caldas examined 

 the chinchona forests of Loxa after Humboldt, between 1803 

 and 1809. He says that the famous quina-tree of Loxa grows 

 in the forests of Uritusinga and Cajanuma, at a height of 

 from 6200 to 8200 feet above the sea, in a temperature of 

 41° to 72°Fahr. ; but that it is only found between the rivers 

 Zamora and Cachiyacu.^ He describes the tree as from 

 thirty to forty-eight feet high, with three or more stems 

 growing from the same root ; the leaves as lanceolate, 

 shining on both sides, with veins a rosy colour, a short and 

 tender pubescence on the under side when young, and when 

 past maturity a bright scarlet colour ; the bark black when 

 exposed to the sun and wind, a brownish colour when closed 

 in by other trees, and always covered with lichens f and the 

 roclj; on which the trees grow, a micaceous schist. 



Don Francisco Jose de Caldas, a native of New Granada, 

 was one of the most eminent scientific men that South 

 America has yet produced. He was associated with Mutis in 



' Aspects, ii. p. 267. I ^ From Martins : a note in No. 1 of 



* Semanario de la Nueva Granada. \ Howard's Nueva Quinologiade Pavon. 



