Chap. IV. 



INTRODUCTION OF CHINCHONA. 



61 



benefits conferred by her rule. The canals and other works 

 of the ]\Ioguls were in ruins before the English occupied the 

 country ; but the melons which the Emperor Baber, the 

 founder of the Mogul dynasty, introduced into India, and 

 which caused him to shed tears while thinking of his far-off 

 mountain-home, still flourish round Delhi and Agra. Cen- 

 turies after the Ganges canal has become a ruin, and the 

 great Vehar reservoir a dry valley, the people of India will 

 probably have cause to bless the healing effects of the fever- 

 dispelling chinchona-trees, which will still be found on their 

 southern mountains. 



The introduction of the chinchona-plant into India was sur- 

 rounded by difficulties from which all other undertakings of a 

 similar nature have been free. When tea was introduced 

 into the Himalayan districts, it had been a cultivated plant 

 in China for many ages, and experienced Cliinese cultivators 

 came with it. But the chinchona had never been cultivated ; 

 since the discovery of its value in 1638 it had remained a 

 wild forest tree; all information concerning it was solely 

 derived from the observations of European travellers who 

 had penetrated into the virgin forests ; and the only guidance 

 for cultivators in India is to be found in the reports of these 

 travellers, and in the experience slowly acquired by careful 

 and intelligent trials.^ Great as these difficulties were, they 

 were probably exceeded by the perils and risks of every descrip- 

 tion which must be encountered in collecting plants and seeds 

 in South America, and conve}'ing them in safety to India. 



But the vast importance of the introduction of these plants 

 into our Indian empu-e, and the inestimable benefits wliich 

 would thus be conferred on the millions who inhabit the 



' sir. Spruce's remark on the eventual 

 necessity of cultivating the chinchona 

 tree is unportant. He says, "I have 

 seen enough of collecting the products 



of the forests to convince me that u-hat- 

 ever vegetable substance is needful to 

 man, he must ultimately cultivate the 

 plant producing it." — Report, p, 83. 



