Chap. IV. CHINCHONA-PLANTS INTO INDIA. C)S 



They, however, did not long survive the voyage to England. 

 Seeds of 0. Calisaya, procured through Mr. Pentland, were 

 sent to the botanical gardens at Calcutta, but did not ger- 

 minate ; and iu 1853 six plants of the same valuable species, 

 contributed by the Horticultural Societies of Edinburgh and 

 London, raised from seeds sent home by Dr. Weddell from 

 Bolivia, were taken out to Calcutta by ]Mr. Fortune. They 

 arrived in good order, but all died through gross carelessness 

 in their removal to Darjeeling. In May, 1853, Dr. Eoyle 

 drew up a second long and valuable report upon the subject, 

 and the question was then allowed to drop for some years. 



It is a curious coincidence that at the very time when Dr. 

 Royle was writing this report I was actually exploring some 

 of the chinchona forests of Peru. But the object of my 

 travels was of an antiquarian and ethnological character, and 

 I was in ignorance of the desire of the Indian Government to 

 procure supplies of those plants, which I then only admired 

 for their beauty. 



In March, 1856, Dr. Royle made a final attempt to induce 

 the East India Company to take efficient steps to procure 

 supplies of chinchona plants and seeds from South America ; 

 and proj)Osed to employ Dr. Jamieson, the able Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Quito, for this purpose. The 

 lamented death of that eminent botanist Dr. Royle, to whom 

 India owes so much, again put an end to all discussion of the 

 subject for some time ; but iu 1859 energetic measures were 

 set on foot, which at length effected the desired object fully 

 and completely. Dr. Royle is well known as the author of 

 works on Himalayan botany, on the cotton cultivation and on 

 the fibres of India, and of a ' Materia Medica ' containing a 

 valuable article on the chmchona genus, which he caused to 

 be printed separately for circulation in India. For several 

 years he took the warmest interest in the proposed measures 

 for the introduction of chinchona-plants into India, and used 



