JESUITS-BARK. PERUVIAN-BARK. 147 



detailed in his pupil Zea's communications to the Madrid Annals 

 of Natural History : in consequence of which they have been intro- 

 duced under the same names into the recent pharmacopoeia of the 

 London college. The cinchona officinalis of Linnaeus proves to 

 have been termed from specimens of the tree producing the yellow 

 bark, which were sent to him by Mutis, and through mistake con. 

 founded with the true Peruvian or quilled bark received by him 

 from Condamine, in compliment to whose earliest and very accu- 

 rate description, the tree has been named by Humboldt and Bon 

 pland * cinchona Condaminea. From Condamine we shall copy 

 the description of the tree, whose account of it was drawn up from 

 long, careful and accurate observation. 



It is a native of Peru, growing most abundantly on a long chain 

 of mountains extending to the north and south of Loxa, where its 

 trunk frequently exceeds in the bulk the body of a man. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Arrot, the soil in which these trees thrive best, is gene- 

 rally a red clayey or rocky ground, and especially on the banks of 

 small rivers descending from the high mountains. This author 

 also informs us, that the properest season for cutting off the bark 

 is from September to November, and the manner of conducting 

 this we shall relate below in Mr. Arrot's own words f. On the trees 



* Plantes Equinoxiales, torn. i. p. S3. 



f u The properest season for cutting the bark is from September to Novem- 

 ber, the only time in the whole year of some intermission from the rain in the 

 mountains. Having discovered a spot where the trees most abound, they first 

 build huts for the workmen, and then a large hut wherein to put the bark in 

 order to preserve it from the wet ; but they let it lie there as short a time as 

 possible, having beforehand cut a road from the place where the trees grow, 

 through the woods, sometimes three or four leagues, to the nearest plantation 

 or farm-house in the low country, whither, if the rain permits them, they carry 

 the bark forthwith to dry. These preparations being made, they provide each 

 Indian (they being the cutters) with a large knife, and a bag that will hold 

 about fifty pounds of green bark : every two Indians take one tree, whence 

 they cut or slice down the bark, as far as they can reach from the ground j 

 they then take sticks about half a yard long each, which they tie to the tree 

 with tough withsat proper distances, like the steps of a ladder, always slicing 

 off the bark as far as they can reach before they fix a new step, and thus mount 

 to the top, the Indian below gathering what the other cuts : this they do by 

 turns, and go from tree to tree until the bag is full, which, t\hen they have 

 plenty of trees, is generally a day's work for one Indian. As much care as 

 possible must be taken that the bark is not cut wet ; should it so happen, it i* 



Si ? 



