34 Observations and Experiments on Peruvian Bark. 



mrjiket, is no doubt more frequently obtained by colouring 

 low priced yellow bark, than from the product of a distinct 

 species. 



There is but one species of bark in addition to the Ob- 

 longifolia as before stated, producing a red powder which is 

 called Rosea, and as that species is seldom or never known in 

 our commerce there can be little or no powder produced by 

 it, hence, all the inferior kinds of red bark of which there is no 

 small quantity to the discredit of those who sell it, evidently 

 must be either such of the Oblongifolia as has been ren- 

 dered almost inactive, by age, weather, or some other expo- 

 sure, or as before surmised, is inferior yellow bark, colour- 

 ed, and as the product of the former must be small, it in all 

 probability proceeds from the latter source ; hence the 2>rice 

 of red bark is as various, (and the qualities correspondmg 

 loith the prices,) as the yellow bark, although the number of 

 species of which we are acquainted is not one eighth the 

 number of the latter. 



The cinchona oblongifolia is the magnifolia of the flora 

 Peruviana, and is known in Spain by the name of Coloraria, 

 and is what constitutes the red bark of conimerce ; it occurs 

 generally in large thick pieces, being the product of the 

 largest tree of the genus cinchona ohlongifoha. There are 

 two varieties. 



1st. Colorada Canan, or Quill Red Bark which occurs in 

 quills of various diameters, from one fourth of an inch to 

 two inches in thickness. The epidermis is white or grey, 

 with transversal fissures or warty concretions of a reddish 

 color, the interior is of a brick red color, the cross fracture 

 short and fibrous, the longitudinal fracture compact and shin- 

 ing, the taste not so bitter as that of the calisaya. 



2nd. Colorada Plancha, or Flat Red Bark. This bark is 

 in very large thick pieces, from half an inch to two inches in 

 thickness, and from one to two feet in length, the epidermis 

 brown, thick and rugged with cracks running in various di- 

 rections. The fracture very fibrous inside, is of a deep brick 

 color, the taste is less bitter than that of the quill, and of 

 course much less so than that of the calisaya. 



These two varieties frequently come in the same seroon, 

 and from their appearance are no doubt the product of the 

 same species, or perhaps the same tree ; the quill being pro- 

 duced by the branches and the flat thick pieces from the 

 trunk, or the former from young and the latter from older trees. 



