34 RECKLESS FELLING OF TKEES. Chap. 1L 



of tliis operation, for the bark easily becomes mouldy and 

 loses its colour. The cascariUeros got two rials for every 

 twenty-five pounds of green bark stripped, from the specu- 

 lator, and, as they could easily strip three hundred pounds, they 

 made two dollars a day. The bark cost the speculator about 

 four dollars, and the price at Lima was sixteen to twenty 

 dollars the arroba of twenty-five pounds." 



Dr. Poeppig makes some important remarks on the supposed 

 danger of the total extirpation of the chinchona-trees by reck- 

 less felling. Condamine and UUoa believed that this would 

 be the case in the Loxa forests, and Poeppig thinks that their 

 apprehensions were well founded, because there the trees are 

 not felled, but left standing deprived of their bark, in which 

 ease they are attacked by rot with extraordinary rapidity in 

 tropical forests, hosts of insects penetrate to the stem, and the 

 healthy roots become infected. But it is only necessary to 

 observe the precaution of hewing the stem as near as possible 

 to the root, in order to be sure of its after-growth. After six 

 years, near Cuchero, the young stems may already be felled 

 again ; but, at higher altitudes, where the most effective chin- 

 chonas are found, it requires twenty years.^ 



The C. mierantha abounds in the province of Huanuco, and 

 the bark is known as Cascarilla provinciana. It yields 2 -7 per 

 cent, of chinchonine, and is much sought after for the Kussian 

 market. 



The C. nitida is a lofty tree growing in the higher regions 

 of Huanuco, and is known by the natives as quina cana legi- 

 tima (genuine grey bark). It grows at a greater lieight than 

 the former species, and yields 2*2 per cent, of chinchonine. 



The C. Peruviana, so named by Mr. Howard, is the Casca- 

 rilla de pata de gallinazo of the natives. It grows in the forests 

 at a lower elevation than Q. nitida, and yields 3 per cent, of 

 chinchonine and chinchom'dine, consequently indicating a 



* Poeppig. Van Tschudi, p. 399. ' Poeppig. 



