556 
Broughton, who have been conspicuous, so far as India is 
concerned, in the rapid development of the enterprise. 
The efforts of our own Government have not been con- 
fined to India, but localities have been sought in other 
parts of the world where natural conditions seemed to 
favour the chance of success in the introduction of 
quinine-yielding trees, and at the time I speak of (1863) 
there were under the care of Mr. Thwaites in Ceylon up- 
wards of 20,000 young Cinchona plants. Jamaica also 
had made a successful beginning, and the authorities of 
several European countries were considering how far their 
respective colonies might be utilised to the same end, 
though but little decided action beyond what I have stated 
had been taken. 
The ten years that have intervened need not detain us, 
but having noticed the origin, we will turn at once to the 
practical aspect of the subject at the present time. 
The latest official return places the number of Cin- 
chona trees in cultivation in the Island of Java at two 
millions, 
I can find no published account of the exact extent of 
the British plantations at the present time. My latest in- 
formation I owe to the kindness of C. R. Markham, 
F.R.S., of the India Office. It is contained in the Par- 
liamentary Blue-book of August 1870, and refers only to 
the Madras and Bengal Presidencies. This gives the 
total number of Cinchona plants growing on the Neil- 
gherries in January of that year at 2,595,176, of which 
nearly one-half (1,143,844) were permanently planted 
out.* The number at Darjeeling in the Bengal Presi- 
dency in March 1870 is stated at 2,262,210, of which a 
million and a half were in permanent plantations. 
Of the extent of the plantations in Ceylon and Jamaica 
I know nothing, but reports from time to time state that 
they are prospering, It is needless to refer to the experi- 
ments in cultivation in the south of Europe, the Caucasus, 
Brazil, the Philippines, or Australia, as these are not yet 
sufficient in extent to have any practical significance. 
The relative value of the bark produced by the various 
species and varieties of Cinchona is a question that has 
received close attention, and perhaps cannot be considered 
settled until something more like uniformity in the sub- 
division and nomenclature of the genus prevails. Plants 
regarded as merely varieties of the same species yield 
widely differing proportions of alkaloids, and the subject - 
is further complicated by considerations as to the possible 
effects of cultivation and of different climatal condi- 
TOUS. ye) 
The barks now being produced in the Dutch and ;British 
colonies are referrible to five species, viz. :— 
C. Calisaya, of which, as I have said, only a small pro- 
portion realises expectation in its yield of quinine ; 
C. Hasskarliana {called a hybrid), which appears to be 
of little value in respect of alkaloids ; 
C. Pahudiana, deficient in the same particulars, but pro- 
ducing a bark which finds a ready market for pharmaceu- 
tical purposes ; 
* Since this was written I have reeeived a copy of a return which is be- 
lieved to represent the actual number of Cinchona trees in the Government 
plantations in the Neilgherries at the present time. It shows an increase of 
12,330 ‘‘planted out,” and isas follows :— 
Crown barks (C. officinalis) .. aaa des 508,878 
Red barks see aos ae sue 579,938 
Yellow barks... a 33,850 
Grey barks ase - 28,759 
Other species 45749 
1,156,174 
In addition to these it must b recollected that the Government had up to 
1870 distributed upwards of 178,009 trees from the Neilgherry nurseries, 2s 
well as nearly three hundred ounces of the seeds of various species, to pri- 
vate individuals disposed to plant on their estates, After all, when the ex- 
perimental stage of such an undertaking is over, private enterprise would 
seem to be its safest basis. A Parliamentary paper on the progress of India 
in 1872, just issued, gives the total number of plants in the Neilgherry plan- 
tations as 2,639,285, but this probably includes the very young trees still in 
Siete I have no particulars beyond what appear in a paragraph in the 
tmes, 
NATURE 
[ Oct. 30, 1873 
C. officinalis, which, in British India,* appears to be 
the most generally satisfactory ; and ¥ 
C. succirubra, which, notwithstanding certain excep- 
tional samples, has not turned out altogether well... .. 
I can say little about the West Indian plantations as 
to extent, but the quality of the bark they produce is 
encouraging. Mr. Howard reports that the chemical 
examination of barks from Jamaica is “ highly satisfac- 
tory as regards the prospects of Cinchona culture in that — 
island.” “ 
Various questions are still pending :—the influence of 
manures on the chemical constituents of the trees, the 
various methods of removing the bark from the tree, and — 
the encouragement of renewal by the processes of strip- 
ping and mossing, and many others of like importance, 
the solution of which must be left to time, and need not” 
occupy our consideration here. 
DONATI 
GCIENCE, and more particularly astronomy, has re- 
- cently sustained a serious loss in the death of Prof. 
G. B. Donati, Director of the Royal Observatory of Ar- 
cetri, near Florence, and Professor of Astronomy in the 
Royal Institution of that city. 
On his return from Vienna, where he had represented 
Italy at the International Meteorological Congress, he 
was scized by a severe attack of Asiatic cholera, to which 
in avery short time he fell a victim, dying at his villa 
near the Observatory, on the morning of the 20th of Sep- 
tember last, being only forty-seven years of age. He was 
born at Pisa in 1826, In 1852 he began his astronomical 
career at the Observatory of Florence, and by his talents, 
his attainments, and his indefatigable industry, rapidly 
gained the esteem and admiration of the learned, attaming © 
a well-merited fame, not so much by the discovery of new 
comets—among which the most remarkable was that of 
1858, to which he bequeathed his name—as by the impor- 
tant observations which he made and published. Of © 
these we need only mention his observations on the 
study of the spectra of the stars, by which work he 
successfully inaugurated in 1860 one of the most im- 
portant ‘branches of physical astronomy, namely, the 
spectroscopy of celestial bodies. iy 
In 1864 he succeeded Prof. G. B. Arnia as Director 
of the Observatory, after which much of his time 
and energy were devoted to the establishment of 
an observatory for Florence and for Italy, which should 
be completely adapted to the present exigencies of 
Science, both as regards astronomy and terrestrial physics. 
He was in no way discouraged by the serious difficulti 
of this undertaking, but, inspired by a true love of Scien 
he overcame them all, insomuch that in a short time, 
under his active and keen-sighted superintendence, the 
new observatory was erected on the hill of Arcetri; an 
observatory which, by the excellence of its position, as 
well as by the convenience and solidity of its construction, 
has guaranteed for astronomy and terrestrial physics the 
most important advantages in every branch of observa- 
tion, 
The observatory was already in working condition, and — 
an important series of observations had been commenced 
when Science was robbed, by a premature death, of one o 
her most valued worshippers, who was thus cruelly cut off 
just as he had entered upon a brilliant career, in which, 
had he lived, he would certainly have greatly augmented ~ 
his fame, and shed glory on the Observatory of Arcetri 
Prof. Donati had already commenced a series of no es 
from the new observatory by the recent publication 
* This limitation is at present necessary. Dr. De Vrij’s late paper ¢ 
Jamaica barks (‘* Pharm. Journal,” August 16, 1873) shows the produce 
C. officinalis in that island to be very deficient in quinine, inferior indeed | 
C. Pahudiana, whilst a still later communication confirms Mr. Ho’ 
opinion asto the richness of Indian-grown specimens, 
