jan. — mar. 1857.] Peruvian Bark-tree. 



211 



capacity of Botanists together with M. Dombey, an able French 

 physician. After continuing their labors for 1 1 years they publish- 

 ed the results in the Flora Peruviana and in the Quinologia which 

 appeared subsequently from the pen of Don Hippolito Ruiz. 

 Their researches tended greatly to enlarge the existing knowledge 

 of the subject. They established several additional species of the 

 genus Cinchona and opened a new source of supply from the forests 

 of lower Peru and Chili. 



Much however still remained to be discovered and although addi- 

 tions to the stock of information left by them were contributed by 

 Humboldt and Bonpland, Lambert, Poppig, and others, it remain- 

 ed for M. Weddell to bring the subject in a comprehensive form 

 before the public. 



His first journey in search of the Cinchona trees commenced in 

 August 1845. Proceeding through the Chequito country in the 

 province of Bolivia he directed his course southwards towards the 

 Rio Grande, crossed the Cordilleras to Tarija which he reached in 

 January 1846 and determined the most southern limit to which the 

 genus reaches, near the 19° of S. Lat. where it is represented by 

 the C. auslralis. He then after the rains crossed the Andes to La 

 Paz, the emporium of the bark trade of Upper Peru and in the 

 course of hi3 journey, identified for the first time the tree pro- 

 ducing the Calisaya bark which he named C. calisaya. In the lat- 

 ter part of 1847 he explored the eastern slopes of the Andes and 

 came upon some of the richest forests of Cinchona he had yet met 

 with particularly those on the Rio Ayopaya and in the province of 

 Yungas. 



It was here that he obtained the most precise information of the 

 mode of discovering, felling, barking, transporting and selling the 

 quina barks, his account of which is well worth quoting. 



" The name of cascarilleros" says M. Weddell, " is given to the 

 men who cut the cinchonas in the woods ; an appellation equally ap- 

 plying to those who are specially engaged in this commerce. The 

 former, and of these alone I will speak here, are in general men 

 who have been brought up to this laborious occupation from their 

 infancy, and are accustomed by a kind of instinct to guide them- 



