226 



Selections. 



[NO. 2, NEW SERIES, 



been chemically examined in this country or in India, might have 

 thrown some light on the culture. However the seeds arrived 

 safely, and were consigned to the Directors of the Botanical Gar- 

 dens of the Universities, and at Amsterdam. We shall revert to 

 these seeds later. From Uchuhamba the traveller went more 

 southerly, where the people, who had revolted against the Govern- 

 ment, and declared themselves free, not unfrequently threatened his 

 life, for they looked upon him as a spy of the Peruvian Govern- 

 ment. Often, and that too in the night, wholly and suddenly for- 

 saken by his guides, was he obliged to wander about, without the 

 most necessary food, to seek his old track, being whole days with- 

 out seeing a human being. 



" The opinion that the Quinquina-trees are found together in 

 ■woods, growing, as it were, in company, is again, by the experience 

 of Mr. Hasskarl, refuted. They are often scattered, and sometimes, 

 even in the Quinquina districts, very difficult to find. Can the con- 

 tradiction which, in these statements, exists between the earlier 

 and present writers, be explained by the destruction of the woods, 

 which has taken place during the last half century ? 



" Arrived in the province of Caraboya, he cherished the hope 

 that he should there find the Quinquina- trees still full of fruit and 

 seed, and that from information given him. This hope was dis- 

 appointed, as the seeds were already scattered. 



"In the latter end of September, 1853, Mr. Hasskarl arrived at 

 Cuzco, the eld Inca town. Passing from there to Sandia, the ca- 

 pital of the district of that name, where alone the Quinquina, as 

 far as Peru is concerned, is collected, he put himself in connection 

 with some old and experienced bark collectors ( ' Cascarilleros practi- 

 cos J, to obtain informs tion, and to make inquiry concerning the places 

 where the Quinquina-trees grow. Thus he was enabled to see a 

 great number and variety of the Quinquina species, but it was his 

 misfortune to discover that he had come too late to collect seeds, 

 for the fruits remaining on the trees had already dropped their 

 seeds. It may not be improper to remark here that the Quinquina 

 seed is extremely fine and light, and surrounded by an exquisitely 

 fine membrane, so that it is easily blown away and lost, but also, 



