124 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Cinchona Pitayensis must also be referred to C. officinalis as a 

 variety. This attains a height of 60 feet and furnishes also a 

 portion of the Pitaya-bark. It is this particular cinchona, which 

 in Upper India yielded in some instances the very large quantity 

 of 11 per cent, alkaloids, nearly 6 per cent, quinin, the rest 

 quiuidin and cinchonin ; 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 [G. 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 lb., and of renewed bark 

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

 in twenty months ; but all Cinchonas produce seeds copiously, so that 

 the raising of great numbers of plants can be effected with remark- 

 able 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 

 Hasskar liana, 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 succirubra, Pavon.* 



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

 height of 40 feet, yielding the Red Peru-bark, rich in cinchonin and 

 cinchonidin. It is this species, which is predominantly cultivated 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 [G. 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 tempera- 

 ture, no 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 re- 

 garded as inter-jacent between the coffee- and the tea-region, or 



