48 M. HASSKARL'S MISSION. Chap. III. 



were to proceed from Guayaquil to the chinch on a-forests of 

 Loxa in the first instance ; but he changed liis plan, and, 

 landing at Lima, crossed the Cordilleras in May, 1853. 



It would be difficult, in making a chance journey from the 

 coast to the forests of the Eastern Andes, to hit upon a part 

 where valuable species of chinchona-trees are not known to 

 exist. There are such spaces — forest tracts — intervening be- 

 tween the more favoured regions, where only species of little 

 value are found, such as C. pubescens, C. scrobiculata, &c. ; and 

 on one of these, between the region of grey barks in Huanuco 

 and that of 0. Calisaya in Caravaya, M. Hasskarl, through 

 being unacquainted with the localities, was so unfortunate 

 as to stumble. He crossed the Andes by the road from Lima 

 to Tarma, and descended the eastern slopes into the montanas 

 of Vitoc, TIchubamba, and Monobamba ; returning thence by 

 Xauxa into the loftier region of the Andes. Near Uchubamba 

 he saw trees which he believed to be C. Calisaya ; but that spe- 

 cies is never found to the north of the province of Caravaya. 

 He however collected a quantity of seeds of this imaginary 

 C. Calisaya, and four packets of a species which he called 

 C. ovata, with smaller quantities of G. pubescens and C. 

 amygdalijolia. 



The species called by M. Hasskarl C. ovata now forms the 

 bulk of the chinchoua-plantations in Java. He found it on 

 dry sunny hills, without much shelter from the sun, in a very 

 sandy micaceous soil, at an elevation of 5500 to 6000 feet 

 above the sea. It is sometimes a mere shrub, but occasion- 

 ally rises to fifteen or twenty-five feet, with elegant pink 

 flowers and reddish fruit. The native name is cascarilla cres- 

 pnlla chiea ; and as the cresp>illa grande is the C. ovata of 

 Weddell, it is probable that M. Hasskarl was thus led into the 

 mistake of calling his new species C. ovata. The leaves are 

 smooth above, with a felt-like pubescence on the under sur- 

 face, and the hairy capsules are probably an indication of the 



