66 COLLECTION OF CHINCHONA-rLANTR Chap. IV. 



wlio was actually on the spot. Of liis qualifications there 

 could be no doubt, but I could scarcely have ventured to 

 hope that the service which he undertook to perform would 

 have been done so completely and so thoroughly, and would 

 have been crowned witli such undoubted success. It is per- 

 haps invidious to make distinctions, where- all have worked so 

 zealously ; but it is due to Mr, Spruce to say that by far the 

 largest share of credit is due to him, and that liis name must 

 take the most prominent place in connection witli the intro- 

 duction of these precious plants into India. The region 

 assigned to him was the most important, as it yielded the 

 "red-bark" tree {C. succirubra), containing a larger per- 

 centage of febrifugal alkaloids than any other species ; and I 

 felt more sanguine of success in this quarter than in any other, 

 because the country of the " red bark " was more accessible 

 than any of the others, the forests being on the western slopes 

 of the Andes, navigable rivers flowing through them to the 

 Pacific Ocean, and there being, therefore, no necessity of con- 

 veying the plants over the snowy wilds of the Cordilleras. 

 I also requested Mr. Spruce to make an arrangement for 

 procuring seeds of the valuable species from the forests of 

 Loxa. 



For the forests of the Peruvian province of Huanuco I pro- 

 cured the services of Mr. Pritchett, a gentleman who had 

 passed some years in South America, and who was well 

 acquainted with that particular region. He was to collect 

 plants and seeds of the species yielding grey bark. 



I myself undertook to explore the forests either of Cara- 

 vaya or Bolivia, and to collect the 0. Calisaya and other im- 

 portant species of that more distant region. This part of the 

 enterprise was surrounded by peculiar difficulties, arising 

 from the jealousy of the people, habitual with the Bolivians, 

 and recently excited in the minds of the Peruvians of Cara- 

 vaya by the proceedings of M. Hasskarl, the Dutch agent ; 



