238 



Selections. 



[NO. 2, NEW SERIES, 



link, of Amsterdam, has also sent once or twice to Java, and there* 

 by has shown his real interest in the good cause. 



" In the Botanical Garden at Paris some plants of the Cinchona 

 Calisaya had grown up from seeds, sent by Mr. Weddell from 

 South America ; part of these were sent to Algiers, the rest were 

 kept at Paris. In 1851 I saw two plants in one of the greenhouses, 

 which, I was assured, were the only ones left. These, as I guess, 

 were from 2-2 j feet high, and were in a healthy state. It would 

 have been indiscreet to have asked for one of those two plants ; I 

 learned however that there was one at Messrs. Thibaut and Ke- 

 teliere's, which seemed to me the same. This plant was conceded 

 to me, and was sent from Paris to Leyden on the 21st of July, 

 1851. It grew luxuriantly here, and in a few weeks attained a 

 length of 75 inches ; it was sent by the Minister's orders, in an 

 apparatus expressly made for it, to Java, on the 1st of December, 

 1851. 



" A letter from Batavia, 21st April-, 1852, informed me that what 

 I had sent had succeeded ; for which, it appeared, that the minute 

 care and the particular form of the apparatus were to be thanked. 

 A few slips were immediately taken from this little tree ; and the 

 preservation of the plant was ensured, if unfortunately the chief 

 stem should wither, for which, at first, there was some fear. The 

 slips grew, and the tree also was preserved, to which its transplan- 

 tation to Tjipannas certainly contributed. 



" The last advices from East India, concerning this plant, sent 

 from the Botanical Garden, stated that very favourable expecta- 

 tions were formed of it, and that it had already attained a height 

 of 5| feet. Will the cultivation at Java succeed ? Will the soil, 

 the air, the light, the degree of warmth, of dampness, and other 

 atmospheric relations, lastly, will the particular situation, suit the 

 culture ? Will the plant there find, in a word, all that it finds in its 

 native soil that is necessary for its development in its normal state, 

 and there everything to form all that which makes it the most 

 valuable of all medicinal substances that the earth anywhere af- 

 fords ? 



