MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 563 



cultivation of chincliona, and one Textor was directed to proceed CH. XXX. 

 to South America to collect plants and seeds, but lie died and the ^ 



■^ ... LHINCHONA 



expedition was abandoned. Dr. Weddell s visit to the chincliona Culture. 

 region (1845-48) was productive of a revival of interest in the 

 matter. In the year 1852^ in accordance with the grand and 

 benevolent plan of the Dutch Minister of State, Pahud, the 

 botanist M. Hasskarl was deputed to collect plants and seeds of 

 valuable varieties and convey them to Java. The plants collected 

 by him were landed in Java in 1854. These were more or 

 less worthless varieties of G. callsaija. A plant of the true 

 calisaya had, however, as mentioned above, been already intro- 

 duced into Java. Seeds of other varieties, especially of the 

 C. lancifolia, also arrived about the same time and germinated. 

 This was the beginning of the Java plantations. At first the 

 Dutch expended much money and time on the cultivation of 

 inferior kinds on a faulty method, but in 1864 they changed 

 their system. They have now a large number of very valuable 

 species ^ and a far larger number of trees than exist on the Govern- 

 ment Plantations of Southern India. 



In the year 1852 (the year of the Dutch expedition) Lord —the Indian 

 Dalhousie requested the early consideration of the Honorable Government 



^ ^ •' recommends 



Court of Directors to a proposal of the Government of Bengal to the sending 



send a " gardening collector " to South America to collect ?* ^ garden- 

 j' ° ing collector 



plants and seeds. Dr. Royle, then employed at the India House, to South 



submitted a report on the subject to the Court, supporting the ^"^^"'^*- 

 recommendation. But the Board of Control considered that the 

 necessary supplies of seeds and plants should be forwarded 

 through the Consular Agent. Some plants and seeds were 

 collected, but they did not survive the voyage to Europe. In 

 1853 '^ a few plants of C. calisaya were sent to Calcutta from 

 Kew ; five survived the voyage, but two died during removal to 

 Darjeeling, and the remainder was killed there by frost in the 

 first winter. Early in 1856 Dr. Royle again urged the matter on 

 the Indian Government, but without success. Lord Canning 

 penned a minute, 20th October 1856, strongly supporting the 

 recommendations of the Medical Board and Agricultural Society 

 to employ a scientific collector in South America. *' In six 

 years,^' he observed, " the Government of India has expended 

 nearly £54,000 ^ in quinine and cinchona bark, and, therefore, 

 I believe that success will be well worth the cost." He con- 

 curred in the Board's views that there was every probability of 



^ Some bark of the C. calisaya, var. Ledgeriana, is reported to have yielded 10 

 to 13 j per cent, of crystalline sulphate of quinine. — Dr. King. 



- Bine Book, Vol. I. 



3 In 187fi-77 India imported t,618 lb. of qnininc alone, value 3,34,137 rupees, 

 against 3,9251b., valiio 1,91,019 rupees, in 1875-76. 



70 



