Chap. H. RESEARCHES OF DR. KARSTEN. 29 



sible forests, while the other three kinds grow in partly culti- 

 vated and inhabited regions, and their barks are therefore 

 much more easy to collect. These worthless barks Avere, there- 

 fore, largely exported from Carthagena and Santa Martha, 

 while the valuable C. lancifolia was neglected ; and the conse- 

 quence was that the barks of New Granada feU entirely into 

 discredit for many years. In about 1849, however, Dr. Santa 

 Maria of Bogota discovered the C. lancifolia afresh, producing 

 the quina anaravjada, and it has recently been found in the 

 whole Cordillera from Bogota to Popayan, and largely exported 

 between 1849 and 1855, when the supplies began to fail. 



Dr. Karsten, a distinguished German botanist, has lately 

 retm*ned from a residence of some years in New Granada, 

 where he thoroughly examined the region of C. lancifolia. 

 His remarks on the production of alkaloids in chinchona barks 

 are \exj important. He came to the conclusion that the 

 content of alkaloids was not always the same in the same 

 species of chinchona, and that the soil and relations of climate, 

 on which the nourishment of the plant depends, exercise 

 considerable influence. He also assumes, what is undoubtedly 

 true, that the chinchonee with the capsule opening from the 

 base and crowned by the caljrs, with a corolla of delicate 

 texture and bearded edges, and generally unindented seed- 

 lobes, give febrifugal barks ; but his further position that the 

 short oval or elliptic capsules are a sign of a regularly larger 

 content of alkaloids, wliile long capsules show a small quan- 

 tity or total absence of quinine and chinchouine, though 

 doubtless correct so far as Dr. Karsten's personal observation 

 extended, will not bear general application. The C. succi- 

 ruhra, the richest of all the barks in alkaloids, woidd certainly 

 come under the latter head. Dr. Karsten's observations on 

 the differences in tlie structure of the false and true barks 

 are also exceedingly valuable. 



The C. lancifolia of New Granada has been found to con- 

 tain as much as 2^ per cent, of quinine and from 1 to 2 per 



