568 CULTIVATION OF CHINCHONAS App. D. 



possible space of time, it was found that cuttings and layers required more 

 wood than could be conveniently spared, and it was resolved to try the 

 projjagatiou by buds ; in this respect the success has been most satisfactory. 

 The secret of success entirely lies in the amount of moisture given ; if in 

 excess, they rot immediately, but, if sufficient care is exercised in reference 

 to moisture, the losses will not exceed three or four per cent. Six C. Cali- 

 saya buds put in on the 30th January all rooted in forty-one days. It 

 may be observed that it is not necessary that a leaf should be attached 

 to the bud : this is no doubt an advantage, although we have struck many 

 buds of the red bark without leaves, and also a few of the Calisayas. 



It ought to be explained that the reason why the earth is brought to a 

 medium state of moisture before being put into the pots is because it is 

 never afterwards watered to such an extent as to render it really wet, being 

 in fact just kept in that state of moisture in which it was originally placed 

 in the pots, and this uniform and medium state of moisture is more easily 

 retained by the pots being plunged in beds of earth. The reason why we 

 found this system necessary was, that, when the soil was watered in the usual 

 way after the seedlings or cuttings were placed in it, it was found, from its 

 expansion and adhesion by the action of the water, that its particles were 

 forced far too close together to be beneficial to the gi-owth of the plants, 

 and in many instances this proved to be injurious, vastly retarding their 

 growth. 



In the nurseries in the open air the same principle of cultivation and pro- 

 pagation as that described above has been adopted, and, with reference to 

 the condition of the plants and layers, with nearly equal success, the 

 period of rooting of the layers being from two months to ten weeks, while 

 cuttings take from two to three months, the average loss being about 

 fifteen per cent. : this occurs from the impossibility, in the open air, of 

 keeping a uniform state of the atmosphere around the cuttings. With 

 layers this is not so important, as they root quite as surely (though slower) 

 as in the propagating-houscs, and flourish equally well. 



Formation of Plantations. — The mode of cultivation of these plants 

 likely to prove the most advantageous being uncertain, it was resolved in 

 May and June of 1861 to place out a number of plants under different 

 conditions of shade, exposure, &c., and the result has been that the plants 

 placed without the protection of living shade have made the most satis- 

 factory progress, and borne the dry season without the least injury. The 

 plants placed under living shade were found to be damaged in some degree 

 during the rains by the incessant drip, but on the weather clearing up they 

 threw out new leaves and quickly recovered. Nine months after jDlanting, 

 or at the end of our dry season, these plants were found to be suffering 

 considerably from the drought ; and on taking a few of them up, it was 

 found tliat the holes in which these Chinchonas were planted had become 

 entirely tilled by the fibres of the roots of the living trees in their neigh- 

 bourhood, which had drawn u]i the wliole of the moisture and nourishment 

 from the soil in which the Chinchona-plants were placed. In i)utting the 



