Chinchona 



Culture. 



552 MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRl DISTRICT, 



CH. XXX. diinclioua forests by tlie bark-collectors,^ and thus tlie impor- 

 tance of introducing tbe plant into other countries suited for its 

 growth was generally acknowledged, especially by the two 



nations— the English and Dutch— who, by reason of their Eastern 



possessions, were the chief consumers. As early as 1835 Dr. 



Forbes Royle, then Superintendent of the Gardens at Seharun- 



pore, suggested its introduction on the Khasia andNilagiri Hills, 



and later (1839) in his " Illustrations of Himalayan Botany/'^ 



The subject attracted the notice of Lord William Bentinck. Dr. 



Royle wrote in 1852 : 



Suggestions " The probability of the entire sucoess of the cinchona tree in India 



to iutrodace g^gj^^^ t,o admit of hardly any doubt, if ordinary care is adopted in the 



hIto*the'East selection of suitable localities. I myself recommended this measure 



Indies. many years ago when treating of the family of plants to which 



cinchonas belong. I inferred from a comparison of soil and climate 



with the geographical distribution of cinchonacea3 plants that quinine 



yielding cinchonas might be cultivated on the slopes of the Nilagiris 



and of the Southern Himalayas, in the same way that I inferred the 



Chinese tea plants might be cultivated in the Northern Himalayas." 



The French Academy had been urged by Jussieu and others 

 to induce the French Government to make similar experiments, as 

 the project was so uncertain that it was improbable that private 

 capitalists would undertake it. Dr. Weddell had well written 

 (Hist., p. 13):— 



" The only remedy is cultivation, and it is absolutely necessary to 



have recourse to it. If any tree deserves acclimitization in a French 



colony, that tree is incontestably cinchona, and posterity will wish 



a blessing on the man who has carried the idea into execution." 



—attempts In consequence an attempt was made in Algeria by the French 



Fren^ch^and'' Government iu 1850, but it failed. ^ 



Dutch. The Dutch Government, however, was the first to take the 



matter in hand. As early as 1829 ^ scientific men had pressed on the 

 Dutch Government the advisability of introducing into Java the 



1 " If no means be adopted," wrote Dr. Weddell in his History in 1849, " to 

 arrest this destroying agency, posterity will have to regret, if not the total 

 disappearance, at least the gradually occurring scarcity of the various kinds of 

 quina." 



2 The desirability of introducing chinchonas into the East Indies was urged in 

 a memorial addressed to the East India Company between 1838 and 1842 by Sir 

 Robert Christison and backed by Dr. Forbes Royle, but no active step was 

 taken till 1852, when again, on the motion of Dr. Royle, some efforts wore made 

 to obtain plants through Consular Agents. 



In the original memorial presented by Sir Robert Christison he pointed out that 

 " the transplantation, if successful, would become remunerative," because the 

 trees might be cut down younger than was the case in America, and tho bark 

 might be collected like cinnamon bark. — Enci/cl. Britan., "Vol. V. 



•* " Cultivation of the Chinchonas in Java," by K. W. VAnGorKOM, page 7. 



^ K. W. v.\nGouku.m's Oultii'atioti of the Chinchonas. 



