THE PERUVIAN BARK FAMILY. 241 



moniliform roots were taken. The plants raised were sent out 

 to India, and arrived in excellent condition, and it is now plenti- 

 ful, and may prove second only to the Cinchona in medical im- 

 portance. Facts like these speak volumes in favour of skilful 

 propagation. A new method of propagating Ipecacuanha has 

 been devised in India by Mr Jaffray, and promises to be 

 of great value. It simply consists in striking the leaves up- 

 right in pots. These produce roots, and the most superficial 

 of these eventually produce buds. It is possible that this and 

 many other rare and valuable plants might be readily imported 

 in quantity by bringing over the roots or rhizomes in ,cases of 

 moist earth. This plan of importation is worth more attention 

 in the case of such thick-rooted plants as do not readily pro- 

 duce fertile seeds, or which produce seeds which only germinate 

 when sown directly they are ripe, as in the case of the Mango 

 and other plants. 



Cinchona (Peruvian Barks). A highly important group of 

 Peruvian plants, of late years much cultivated at Darjeeling, on 

 the Neilgherries, and other hill stations in India, where the 

 extract of Peruvian Bark or Quinine is especially valuable as a 

 febrifuge and tonic to European residents. The most valuable 

 kinds appear to be C. micrantha, C. succirubra, C. Calisaya, C. 

 officinalis, and their varieties Bonplandiana, Uritusinga, and 

 many others. Cinchonas are readily propagated from cuttings 

 of the partially-hardened young growth, or grafting such cut- 

 tings on bits of root in a genial bottom-heat is also successful. 

 Imported seeds germinate readily in heat. In their native 

 country (Peru), and also in the Indian Cinchona plantations, 

 nearly all the species seed freely, and many accidental hybrids 

 are said to have originated in cultivation where the different 

 kinds are mixed in the same plantation. From an interesting 

 paper in the ' Journal of the Linnsean Society,' 1870, p. 475, we 

 learn that the Cinchonae have long been known to produce 

 dimorphic flowers; and this is well known to the Peruvian 

 Spaniards, by whom the plants are named macho or hembra, 

 according as the male or female blossoms are prominent on the 

 branches of any single tree. This dimorphism seems to be a 

 special provision to secure cross - fertilisation, as has been 

 shown by Darwin and other observers in the parallel cases of 

 Primula, Oxalis, and many other plants. In the Cinchona 

 plantations of Madras, nearly all the most valuable kinds are 

 grown together ; they fruit freely, and numerous seedlings 

 are raised to supply vacancies. Among these seedlings, the 

 author of the paper above cited (J. Broughton, F.C.S.) noted a 

 plant of great beauty which had the general habit and luxuriance 



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