viu PREFACE. 



destination. To the scientific and practical know- 

 ledge, the unwearied zeal, and skilful management 

 of Mr. Mclvor, the Superintendent of the Govern- 

 ment Gardens at Ootacamund, on the Neilgherry 

 hills, is therefore due the successful introduction 

 of Chinchona-plants into India. His care has now 

 been fully rewarded, and the experiment has reached 

 a point which places it beyond the possibility of ulti- 

 mate failure. 



I am indebted to Sir William Hooker, who has, 

 from the first, taken a deep interest in this beneficial 

 measure, for many acts of kindness, and for his 

 readiness to give me valuable advice and assistance ; 

 while he has rendered most essential service in 

 successfully raising a large number of Chinchona- 

 plants at Kew. To Dr. Weddell my thanks are 

 due for much information most promptly and kindly 

 supplied ; and to Mr. Howard for the important 

 suggestions and information with which he has fre- 

 quently favoured me, and which no scientific man 

 in Europe is better able to give. It is a fortunate 

 circumstance that his invaluable and superbly illus- 

 trated work on the Ohinchona genus should have 

 been published just at the time when the Chinchonse 

 are about to be planted out in India and Ceylon, for 

 from no other source could the cultivators derive 

 so large an amount of valuable information. Mr. 



