250 ON THE CASCARILLAS OF 
the Andes, or the principal towns. An 
unavoidable loss, however, hence accrues; 
for however perfectly the bark may have 
been dried in the woody region, it still loses 
in three or four days after its arrival in 
Huanuco, twelve to fifteen per cent. on its 
_weight. The packages are made up into 
bales of four or five arrobas each, and with 
the greatest possible care, in order that the 
beautiful canes of two feet long, into which 
the bark was coiled on the Montaña, may 
not be broken in the carriage. Trailing 
plants (bejucos) are used to tie up the 
bundles, and when they arrive in Lima 
they are undone, and sorted into lengths of 
different pieces, previously to dispatching 
them in chests to Europe. The trade in 
Huanuco bark was very brisk twenty years 
ago at Lima, and the article went to the 
Spanish market under the name of Casca- 
rilla roxa, without being confounded with 
the Cortex Chine ruber as it is called by 
us. The barks from the districts of the 
Lower Huallaga, of Huambo and Chacha- 
poyas, &c. are on the other hand, very 
little prized in Cadiz, and called Casca- 
rilla arollada. 
As to the various species of trees that 
produce the barks, and the different quali- 
ties of the article itself, much prejudice 
prevails, not only in Europe, but also in 
Peru, as even Condamine, in his Journal 
d'un Voyage à l Equateur, published at 
Paris in 1751, vol. i. p. 38, has noticed. 
any species are entirely rejected, and 
others, without cause, considered pecu- 
liarly fine, and the Botanist sees, with sur- 
prise; how the natives, without any visible 
character, still separate the same well- 
marked species into numerous different 
ones, and give corresponding and different 
.names to the produce. A single species, 
Cinchona glandulifera, of Ruiz and Pa- 
yon, has three appellations, though scarce- 
så the least trace of a variety can be de- 
. tected, on the strictest botanical examina- 
vs tion. There is also an opinion prevalent 
in Peru, that it is only the bark of stems 
and lower branches which possesses me- 
dical virtues, and that the slender quills 
~ (canutillos) which were long sought for in 
therefore here state is the result of my ex- - 
CUCHERO AND HUANUCO. 
preference by the English trade, are 
the utmost care, a great quantity of these 
apparent or reputed species that grow 
about Pampayaco, having myself stripped —— 
off the barks, and after subjecting them to 
the proper process, sent large quam 
of the several sorts to Europe. W 
periments in Peru, and of the comparisons 
which I have instituted respecting them - 
since my return to Europe. 
The Officinal barks, growing in the: 
vicinity of Cuchero, are as follows:— 
1. Cascarilla Negrilla, which is m 
ed from the Cinchona glandulifera, R. and. 
P., is esteemed the finest kind. The tree 
inhabits only the higher mountains, and is 
scarcer than the other species: its 
twelve to fifteen feet, and on the cold 
summits of the mountains attains only the 
stature of a bush; when it yields so little 
bark that only five or six pounds, on an 
average can be expected from a single 
tree. The Peruvians distinguish this bark - 
by its generally blackish upper skin, which — 
is only here and there interrupted by small: 
grey-green spots when in a fresh state. 
The common people consider these ap- . 
pearances as an integral part of the bark, - 
and look upon it as the more valuable, if. 
beneath the larger spots there appears a — 
black shining velvety substance, dispersed 
in ovals, of some lines broad (this proba 
is also attested, according to the sta 
ments of the Cascarilleros, by its exhibiting 
a glossy, shining, almost roziny fracture: 
its colour withinside should also be that of. E: 
a orange, with a light transition ta E 
woody than in the following. In the month 
of February the forests are perfumed vu 
the strong scent of its blossoms. 
2. Cascarilla provinciana Negrilla. 
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