350 RUBIACE^. 



The expedition of Spruce was successful, but was also attended with 

 much difficulty and danger, of which there are vivid pictures in the 

 interesting narratives by himself and by Cross, published in the Par- 

 liamentary Returns of 1863 and 1866.^ 



The service entrusted to Pritchett was also efficiently performed ; 

 and he succeeded in bringing to Southampton six cases containing 

 plants of G. onicrantha and G. nitida, besides a large supply of seeds. 



Some important supplies of plants and seed for British India have 

 likewise been obtained from the Dutch plantations in Java. Seeds of 

 G. lancifolia, the tree affording the valuable bark of New Granada, 

 were procured through Dr. Karsten. 



Previously to the arrival in India of the first consignment of plants, 

 careful inquiries were instituted from a meteorological and geological 

 point of view, as to the localities most adapted for the cultivation. This 

 resulted in the selection for the first trial of certain spots among the 

 Neilgherry (or Nilgiri) Hills on the south-west coast of India and in the 

 Madras Presidency. Of this district, the chief town is Ootocamund (or 

 Utakamand), situated about 60 miles south of Mysore and the same 

 distance from the Indian Ocean. Here the first plantation was esta- 

 blished in a woody ravine, 7,000 feet above the sea-level, a spot pro- 

 nounced by Mr. Markham to be exceedingly analogous, as respects 

 vegetation and climate, to the Cinchona valleys of Carabaya. Other 

 plantations were formed in the same neighbourhood, and so rapid was 

 the propagation, that in September 1866, there were more than 1^ 

 millions of Cinchona plants on the Neilgherry Hills alone.^ The species 

 that grows best there is G. ojfflcinalis. 



The number was stated to be in 1872, 2,639,285, not counting the 

 trees of private planters. The largest are about 30 feet high, with 

 trunks over 3 feet in girth. The area of the Government plantations 

 on the Neilgherry Hills is 950 acres.* 



Plantations have also been made in the coffee-producing districts of 

 Wynaad, and in Coorg, Travancore and Tinnevelly, in all instances, we 

 believe, as private speculations. 



Cinchona plantations have been established by the Government of 

 India in the valleys of the Himalaya in British Sikkim,* and some have 

 been started in the same region by private enterprise. In the former 

 there were on the 31st March 1870, more than 1| millions of plants 

 permanentl}'- placed, the species growing best being G. succiruhra and 

 G. Galisaya. The Cinchona plantation of Rungbi near Darjiling (British 

 Sikkim) covered in 1872 2,000 acres. In the Kangra valley of the 

 Western Himalaya, plantations have been commenced, as well as in the 

 Bombay Presidency, and in British Burma. 



and the collections fomfied by Hasskarl, gberry plantations, is that of William 



Markham, and Pritchett almost all perished Graham Mclvor, who by his rare practical 



after reaching their destination (Markham 's skill and sagacity in the cultivation and 



letter, 26 Feb. 1861). But the propaga- management of the tree, has rendered 



tion by seed has proved very rapid. most signal services in its propagation in 



^ Correspondence relating to the introdtic- India. 



tion of the Chinchona Plant into India, * Moral and material progress and condi- 



ordered by the House of Commons to be tion of India during 1871-72, presented to 



printed 20 March 1863 and 18 June 1866. Parliament 1873. p. 33. 



2 Blue Book (Chinchona Cultivation, * The first annual Report dates from 



1870. p. 30).— A name that must always be 1862 to 1863 ; I am indebted to Dr. King 



remembered in connection with the Neil- for that of 1876-1877. — F. A. F. 



