Selections. [no. 2, new series, 



" Wed dell, in the Introduction to his < Histoire Naturelle des 

 Quinquinas,' says that his attention has been given to all sorts of 

 Quinquinas. These are his words L'immense accroissement 

 pris par le commerce des Quinquinas dans ces parties, rendait en 

 quelque sorte necessaire un travail a leur sujet. A une epoque aussi 

 ou la consommation de ces ecorces, et surtout de leur principe fe- 

 brifuge, la Quinine, devient de plus en plu3 considerable, je crois 

 qu'il peut etre utile d'appeler 1'attention sur les ecorces qui unjour 

 devront remplacerla Quinquina Calysaya, dont l'epuisement devient 

 de plus en plus imminent. Ces especes, si elles sont beaucoup moins 

 riches en principes actifs, nous offuent encore, par leur abondance, 

 quelque securite, contre la chance prochaine de nous voir prives du 

 medicament le plus precieux du regne vegetal.' 



" Several Dutch naturalists, whose zeal in advancement of science 

 for the good of mankind and the glory of their country is above all 

 praise, have, for more than twenty-five years, urged upon the Go- 

 vernment, both at home and in India, the transplantation of the 

 Quinquina-tree from South America to Java. Those gentlemen 

 have been Messrs. Blume, Korthals, Reinwardt, G. J. Mulder, Mi- 

 quel, Fromberg, Vrolik, and others. 



" It will be superfluous to say that successive Ministers for the 

 Colonies have considered these propositions, and all who were offi- 

 cially called to it, and could throw light on the subject, have shown 

 their interest in, and their desire for, the accomplishment of this ob- 

 ject. 



" Some of these naturalists have thought it probable that after 

 some years, if the Quinquina-tree should be exhausted in South 

 America, the culture of it might succeed in Java. Others have 

 thought that neither pains nor money should be spared to transplant 

 from Peru to Java a tree which would grow as luxuriantly there as 

 in America. 



" The desirableness of the transplanting was continually kept in 

 remembrance ; but the Government supposed the thing impractica- 

 ble. The wish to obtain seeds of this tree, through the Dutch con- 

 suls in different States of America, was disappointed, the difficulty 

 of obtaining them being so great, on account of the distance of their 



