THE QUININE FAMILY. 



333 



jeeling, and the Dutch have introduced it into Java. It is 

 now under cultivation in J amaica and Trinidad ; and the 

 late severe fever in the Mauritius has induced the authorities 

 to introduce it into that island. 



The Neilgherry plantations have already yielded bark in 

 sufficient quantity to be brought to the European market, 

 which has been found equally rich in quinine as that of Peru. 

 It has also been found that an infusion of the leaves is useful 

 in fever. The introduction and cultivation of quinine-pro- 

 ducing plants in these countries is worthy of being recorded 

 as an event of the highest importance to mankind. 



The barks of many other plants of the family possess bitter 

 and tonic qualities similar to quinine, but in an inferior de- 

 gree, and are used in their native countries.* 



Ipecacuanha [Cephaelis Ipecacuanha). A small mean- 

 looking plant, native of Brazil, with a soft shrublet stem, 

 about a foot in height, rising from a creeping knotty root ; 

 oblong blunt leaves about 1 or 1 J inch in length, and heads of 

 small, inconspicuous flowers. It grows in forests throughout 

 the whole of Brazil, but like the Cinchona is, from the 

 great demand for it, becoming extirpated in many parts. 

 The roots of this plant have been long famed in medicine as 

 a safe emetic, and as it is of great service in dysentery, as 

 well as being tonic, it is considered a valuable drug, and 

 attempts are now being made to introduce it into the West 

 Indian Islands, as also into Ceylon, whither plants of it have 

 been sent from Kew. The nature of the plant, however, 

 seems to indicate that it would grow better in a wild state 

 than under cultivation, as it will take a long time to establish 

 it in quantity. 



An inferior kind of Ipecacuanha, called " Striated Ipeca- 



* Mr. Cross, a gardener, has heen despatched three times to the 

 Cinchona regions of New Granada for plants and seeds ; and four 

 cases of Cinchona Titayo, a species found to be very rich in 

 quinine, are now (October, 1870) on their way to India. 



