384 ARRIVAL IN INDIA. Chap. XX. 



March, and both collections came up abundantly. The 

 supply of seeds of 0. Condaynlnea reached their destination 

 in Southern India in February 1862. In order to guard 

 against all accidents, a portion of the seeds of each species 

 was left in England, and a depot of young chinchona-plants 

 has thus been formed at Kew Gardens, with a view to fall 

 back upon them in the event of possible failures or misfor- 

 tunes in India.^ Seeds of each of the species were also sent 

 to Ceylon, to which Sir W. Hooker added a few plants of 

 G. Calisaya from his stock at Kew. 



Thus, in spite of one or two disappointments, tUe gi-eat 

 object of the undertaking sanctioned by the Secretary of 

 State for India was fully attained. By the spring of 1861 a 

 large supply of plants and young seedlings was established 

 in the Neilgherry hills ; and at the present moment we have 

 thousands of chinchona-plants, of all the valuable species, 

 flourishing and multiplying rapidly in Southern IncUa, and in 

 Ceylon. When the unprecedented length of the voyages and 

 the numerous trans-shipments are taken into consideration, 

 the wonder is that any of the plants should have been success- 

 fully conveyed from the slopes of the Andes in South America 

 to the ghauts in Southern India, over thousands of miles, 

 through every variety of climate, and subject to the risk of 

 crossing the isthmus of Panama, of changing steamers at 

 the island of St. Thomas, at Southampton, at Suez, and at 

 Bombay, and of the journey through Egypt. 



The most important introduction of plants into India, by 

 means of Wardian cases, previous to the arrival of the chin- 

 chonas, was that of the tea from Cliiua in 1849 and following 

 years by Mr. Fortune. On those occasions the cases were 

 strongly and coarsely made, the glass shades firmly fixed, and 

 the glass itself thick, and glazed in pieces of moderate size. 



'^ Six cases of clunchona-plaiiLs fruiu tliia ckpot were desputcLed to Ce3don 

 by the mail of Jliircli 4, 1862. 



