_ above two and a half millions a-year. Th 
170 
seven days, thus encumbered, through the 
most frightful and perfectly uninhabited 
forests. Generally speaking, the decline 
of the mining business has diminished the 
demand for Coca, and many Cocals lie 
waste, because their owners, ruined by the 
war, no longer possess the means for car- 
rying them on. The plantations in the 
Quebrada of Chinchao formerly yielded an 
annual harvest of 70,000 Spanish pounds, 
which, though fetching but a low price, 
enabled the inhabitants to support them- 
selves, while the tax on Coca alone covered 
all the expenses of the Municipal Govern- 
ment of the place. Thus the Coca, per- 
nicious as it is, seems to be a necessary 
evil, and its cultivation is so extensive as 
to become of statistical importance. Many 
of the woody districts would be uninhabit- 
able without it. In the Quebrada of Chin- 
chao there are one hundred and fifty planta- 
tions, which employ eighteen hundred men, 
thus affording work and support to such a 
number of persons as seldom can obtain a 
regular subsistence in so destitute a coun- 
try as Peru. About two thousand persons, 
the families of the proprietors and their 
dependents, live upon the produce, and a 
thousand more may be added, who are lit- 
tle dealers and manufacturers of the wool- 
len stuff, or muleteers. The fact, that by 
the cultivation of an insignificant shrub full 
employment may be afforded to almost five 
thousand persons in so small a space as 
this valley, proves what a large population 
might find room in Peru, and how numer- 
ous are the means of subsistence that are 
. "presented to the natives, if they would but 
labour In Upper Peru (Bolivia) this 
branch of agriculture is of much greater 
importance, yielding annually about 400,000 
kets. The whole value of the Coca 
. produced in Peru and Bolivia amounts to 
o 
.. mode of culture differs but little in these 
. countries, though the appearance of the 
l ib varies considerably, the under-side 
. of the leaf in the Bolivian plant being of a 
= yellowish colour. The assertion seems to 
me most surprising, that every ounce of 
eds 
MR. DRUMMOND'S COLLECTIONS. 
with the raiz de Yuca, the Sweet Manioc | 
ot. 
I have been unable to detect this mE 
to such an amount, even in a very much 
larger quantity of leaves. Equally un- 3 
founded are the encomiums that have been — 
completely to disprove. 3 
a very small portion of vegetable EC 3 
in it, the saliva of the Coca-chewer is thin * 
and watery, like that which flows from the 1 
chewing of Tobacco, and it betrays not the 
least trace of sugar to the palate. 
older writers give but little information re- | 
specting the Coca—one only, who singu- " 
larly enough has been hitherto overlooked, | 
states, that * Coca has the effect of dis: 
pelling fatigue, and is masticated by the — | 
Indians in order to produce sleep, intoxi- S 
cation, and forgetfulness of all labour and X 
care.” What the Coca-root, briefly men- P 
tioned by Herrera as used for food isl | 
am not aware—perhaps the name, raiz de — 
Coca, proves that he has confounded it S 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
( Continued from p. 101.) 
OLEINEJE. 
619. ° vi Forst, acuminata, Poir. 
—N. Orl. (n. 211.) 
GENTIANEJE. Juss. 
620. (1.) Gentiana saponaria, L.— St. 
Louis.—N. Orl. 1 
o 3) Gentiana ochroleuca, Froel. 
N. Orl —Notwi 
pedig species, I am not satisfied 
the two are ly distinct : and weer 
my ed from St. e artak 
as much of the character of one as 
