114 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



quantity of 11 per cent alkaloids, nearly 6 per cent, quinin, 

 the rest quinidin and cinchoiiin ; this plant is now annihilated 

 for bark-purposes in its native forests. 



Cinchonas raised from seeds provided by the writer of this work, 

 have withstood the slight frosts at San Francisco [Gr. P. Rixford.] 



The Uritusinga-or Loxa-variety grows in its native forests to a 

 height of 60 feet and more [Pavon] and attained in Ceylon in 

 fifteen years a height of 28 feet, with a stem-girth of nearly 2 feet. 

 The price of its bark in 1879 was about 7s. per Ib, and of renewed 

 bark lls. Mr. Mclvor obtained 6,850 cuttings from one imported 

 plant in twenty months ; but all Cinchonae produce seeds copiously, 

 so that the raising of great numbers of plants can be affected with 

 remarkable facility. The bark has yielded 7.4 to 10.0 per cent, 

 sulphate of quinin [Howard], 



In Java some of the best results were obtained with Cinchona 

 Hasskarliana,Miq., a species seemingly as yet not critically identified. 

 Cinchona-seeds do not long retain their vitality ; but as they are so 

 very light, no difficulty exists in sending them speedily even to 

 widely distant places. 



Cinchona sucoirubra, Pavon.* 



Middle Andine regions of Peru and Ecuador. A tree, attaining 

 a height of 40 feet, yielding the Bed Peru-bark, rich in cinchonin 

 and cinchonidin. It is this species, which is predominantly culti- 

 vated on the mountains of Bengal. In India it thrives at lower 

 elevations than other Cinchonas, proves of quicker growth, and 

 there the mixed cheap Cinchona-alkaloids forming the "Quinettum" 

 are largely derived from this plant [Gr. King, J. S. Gamble]. It 

 has been found hardy in Lower Gippsland and the Westernport- 

 district of Victoria. It grew in Madeira at an elevation of 500 

 feet, after having been planted two and a half years, to a height of 

 20 feet, flowering freely also. All these Cinchonas promise to 

 become of importance for culture in the warmest regions of extra- 

 tropical countries, on places not readily accessible or eligible for 

 cereal culture. The Peruvian proverb, that Cinchona- trees like to 

 be " within sight of snow," gives some clue to the conditions under 

 which they thrive best. They delight in the shelter of forests, 

 where there is an equable temperature, 110 frost, some humidity at 

 all times both in air and soil, where the ground is deep and largely 

 consists of the remnants of decayed vegetable substances, and where 

 the subsoil is open. Drippage from shelter-trees too near will be 

 hurtful to the plants. Closed valleys and deep gorges, into which 

 cold air will sink, are also not well adapted for Cinchona-culture. 

 The Cinchona-region may be regarded as inter-jacent between the 

 coffee- and the tea- region, or nearly coinciding with that of the 

 Assam-tea. Cross found the temperature of some of the best 



