64 COMMERCIAL BOTANY. 



In November, 1873, 25,000 pounds of baik from the 

 Nilgbiri plantations were sold in London at an average price 

 of 2s. lOd. per pound, the total sum realised being X3,4:90. 

 One parcel of bark of C. officinalis fetched the unusually 

 high price of 5s. 9d. per pound. In the same year 33,000 

 pounds of dry bark of this species were used on the 

 Nilghiris by Dr. Broughton, the Government quinologist, in 

 the manufacture of a cheap febrifuge, the estimated value of 

 which was £3,300. It was further estimated that 50,000 

 pounds more bark would be harvested before the end of the 

 year, the value of which would be about £6,700, The total 

 income from the Nilghiri plantations alone for the year 

 1873 was thus calculated at £13,490, a very good return for 

 the short time the trees had been under cultivation. 



In 1877 the iirst crop of cinchona bark was sent to 

 London from the Jamaica plantations, Mr. Thomson, the 

 superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, remarking at the 

 time that it was abundantly proved that several species of 

 cinchona were eminently fitted for cultivation in Jamaica, 

 so that the enterprise might be considered as having passed 

 from the experimental stage to that of an established agri 

 cultural industiy. In 1878 a parcel of bark of Cinchona 

 succirubra — the red bark — of Jamaica growth was sold in 

 London at 2s. lOd. per pound, being a higher price than 

 that reached by either East Indian or Ceylon bark sold at 

 the same time. 



Owing to the success that attended the growth of Cin- 

 chona succirubra in the Government plantation at Darjeel- 

 ing, the cheap preparation known as " Cinchona Febrifuge " 

 was begun to be manufactured from it in India in 1877. 

 This preparation was seated to contain " all the febrifugal 

 alkaloids of that species (C succirubra) in the relative pro- 

 portion in which they exist naturally in the bark." 



Dr. King, of the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, writing in 

 1878, says "Increased experience in the use of the new 



