TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



cinchona bark of commerce came from the forests of the 

 Andes, where the bark-collectors — called cascarilleros — cut 

 down the trees, removed the bark, and carried it with great 

 The destruc labour to the ports of shipment. This was a costly proceed- 

 ing, and as the trees were destroyed for their bark, the drug 



The bark 

 formerly a 

 forest 

 product. 



tion of the 

 trees. 



CINCHONA {Cinchona officinalis). 

 I. Flower. 2. Fruit. 



became scarcer and dearer year by year, so that it was 

 feared the valuable medicine, in process of time, would be 

 Dr. Royle. entirely lost. It was suggested, however, in 1839, by Dr. 

 Royle, a distinguished Indian botanist, that an attempt 

 should be made to cultivate the quinine tree in the moun- 

 tains of the East Indies, but this suggestion was not given 

 practical effect to until twenty years later, when the govern- 



