SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



Quinin and Cinclionidin. It is this species, which is pre- 

 dominantly cultivated on the mountains of Bengal. It has 

 been found hardy in Lower Gippsland and the Westernport 

 district. It grew in Madeira at an elevation of 500 feet, 

 after having been planted two and a-half years, to a height of 

 20 feet, flowering freely. All these Cinchonas promise to 

 become of importance for culture in the warmest regions of 

 our forest-land, on places not readily accessible or eligible 

 for cereal culture. The Peruvian proverb that Cinchona trees 

 like to be "within sight of snow" gives some clue to the con- 

 ditions, under which they thrive best. They delight in the 

 shelter of forests, where there is an equable temperature, no 

 frost, some humidity at all times both in air and soil, where 

 the ground is deep and largely consists of the remnants of 

 decayed vegetable substances and where the subsoil is open. 

 Drippage from shelter-trees too near will be hurtful to the 

 plants. Closed valleys and deep gorges, into which cold air 

 will sink, are also not well adapted for Cinchona-culture. In 

 our colony we ought to consociate the Perubark-plants with 

 naturally growing fern-trees, but only in our warmest valleys 

 of richest soil. The best temperature for Cinchonas is from 

 53° to 66° F.; but they mostly will endure in open places a 

 minimum of 32° F.; in the brush shades of the Botanic 

 Garden of Melbourne, where years ago already Cinchonas 

 were raised by the thousands, they have even resisted 

 uninjured a temperature of a few degrees less, wherever the 

 wind had no access, while under such very slight cover the 

 Cinchonas withstood also a heat of a few degrees over 100° F. 

 The plants are most easily raised from seeds, best under some 

 cover such as mats, and they are seeding copiously already 

 several years after planting. The contents of alkaloids in the 

 bark can be much increased by artificial treatment, if the bark 

 is only removed on one side of the stem and the denuded part 

 covered with moss, under which in one year as much bark is 

 formed as otherwise requires three years' growth, such forced 

 bark moreover containing the astounding quantity of as much 

 as 257o alkaloids, because no loss of these ^^recious substances 

 takes place by gradual disintegration through age. The Cin- 

 chona-plants are set out at distances of about 6 feet. The 

 harvest of bark begins in the fourth or fifth year. The price 

 varies in Europe from 2s. to 9s. per lb. according to quality. 

 The limits assigned to this literary compilation do not 

 admit of entering further into details on this occasion, but I 

 may yet add, that in the Darjeeling district over three millions 

 of Cinchona plants were in cultivation in 1869, raised in 

 Government plantations. 



