THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July a, 1888. 
gardeu have been abandoned, and the cultivation of 
ipecacuanha has been accepted like thit of cinchona 
as an experiment which must form an outlying charge. 
The plants are at present under the immediate care 
of the European gar leners of the cinchona plantation, 
an I propagation is being carrte 1 01 chiefly in one of 
the hot, deep valleys on the outor slopes of the 
Sikkioo. Himalaya, which open towards the terai. 
* * if Ilhhe.-to the plant has not perfected seed 
in this country, although flowers have frequently be :n 
produced. We must therefore look to increase by cut- 
tings and other artificial methods." 
From the report of Dr. George H nderson, offlc : at- 
ing Superintendent of the Koyal Botanical Gardens, 
Calcutta, to the Government ot Bengal, May 31, 1873, 
it appears that the numb r of plants from E linburgh 
which reached Kunbgee a ive up t> the end of March, 
1872, were 258. In 1872 and 1873, 122 other plants 
were received, making a total of 380. Besides these, 
Dr. Anderson took out to India in December, 1873, 
128 plants from Kew and C-ilcutia, In t le summer 
of 1871 he reported : " We partially stripped the plants 
of their roots, which wj cut into very small pieces 
and treated as ordinary cuttings. By this method our 
stock of plauts and cuttings was increased to about 
300 by the end of August, 1871." By a continuation 
of the method the total number of plants on the 1st 
of January 1873 was 3,066, and on March 31, 6,719 in 
Sikkim and 500 in 0 llcutta. 
On April 28th, 1874, Dr. King reported th it this 
amount had increased to 63,423. He ttites: "The 
cultivation has been practically confined to Sikkim, 
where it has been conducted chiefly by Mr, Jaffry of 
the cinchona establishment, to whom is largely due 
the credit of its success. * * * Until the mode of 
propagating this plant by root and leaf cuttings was 
discovered progress was extremely slow. Since this 
di-covery, it has been proportionately ripi l. * * tt 
Mr. Gammie, the resident manager of the cinchona 
plantation, and I quite agree that the ipecacuanha 
oannot be successfully cultivated in Sikkim except in 
shady places. In open spots where it gets the full sun, 
it»oon bee >mes sickly. It is essentially a tropical 
plant and evidently prefers moisi, shady spots, where 
there is much vegetable mould in the soil, and an 
equable steamy atmo-phere. * * # A few plauts 
had been sent duririg the year io the Khasi Hills 
and 100 are about to be despatched to t ! ie Madras 
Government for trial in the garden at Barliar, a low- 
lying, moist spot in one of the valleys of the Nilgiris." 
June 4, 1875, Dr. King reports: "The propagation 
of the plant by root-cuttings is now thoroughly under- 
stood, and there are in the hot-beds, under Mr. Jeffrey's 
care, at Ruogbee, more thau 10>,000 young plants, 
while two years ago there were less than 7,000." 
On June 7th, 1876, Dr. King further reported to 
the Government of Bengal: "During the year I sup- 
plied a quantity of the drug itself (ihe dried root) t) 
the Surgeon-General for trial in hospital practice. 
This was carefully administered in cises of dysentery 
by Dr. Crombie, Ute officiating physician to the 
Medical College Hospital, and was pronounced by 
him to be quite as. efficient as the best South 
American drug." On July 10th, 1878: " A number 
of plants have been sent to the Botanical 
Garden at Singapore, which enjoys a climate that 
ought to suit ipecacuanha perfectly. * * * We 
Lave been perfectly successful in propagating the plant 
from root-cuttiugs and seed, and it grows luxuriantly 
under cover. But out of doors the low night teri- 
]>• i-atare of the cold weather proves too severe for it. 
D. rn.g the year 26 pounds of the dried root, taken 
from plauts grown in frames, under Mr. Jaff rev's care 
at Kuugbee, were sent to the medical depot for use, 
previous trials having established the excellence of the 
Sikkim-grown drug." Again, July 10th, 1879 : " I have 
been obliged to give up all hope of the profitable cul- 
tivation of the drug in Nothern India, the climate being 
unsuitable." 
Here its official history in this part of India closes. 
But the fol owing extract from a letter addressed to 
Kew by Mr. Gammie, the resident manager of the 
Government Cinchona Plantations at Darjceling, N 
vember 11th, 1886, illustrates in a striking way the 
varied fortune whic'i attends the attempt to introduce 
a plant to new physical conditions in a part of the 
world distant from its original home, and the impossi- 
bility of absolutely forecasting the event of the experi- 
ment even under the most discouraging circum- 
btanees : — 
" 1 do not think I ever told you the final results from 
our ipecacuanha growing experiments, but do so now. 
Our original stock of plants came from Kew and 
Edinburgh; the great majority fr >m Edinburgh. The 
few plants from Kew differed a good deal in appearance 
from the Edinburgh lot, which again differed greatly 
from each other. All the Kew plants were of one 
sort, which we named from the start the Kew variety. 
It was rougher io the leaf than the Edinburgh sorts, 
and not so strong growing while uuder glass. 
After we hid satisfied ourselves that we could make 
nothing of ipecacuanha from a commercial point of 
view, we put all the plants out in the open, under 
shade, and let th ra t ike their chance. By this time 
we had all the sorts mixed up together, and as we had, 
originally at least, ten Edinburgh plants for each one 
of the Kew sort, and the E linburgh lot had, besides, 
been much the stronger growers under glass, the Kew 
plants formed less than five per cent, of the whole. 
But very soon the Edinburgh sorts beg in to disappear, 
until, in the course of a year or two, there was not 
a single plant of one of the E linburgh varieties alive, 
whilst almost every plant of the Kew variety lived. 
Of it, at the present moment, we have a good stock, 
and in one place at 1,406 feet elevation, under the 
shade of living trees, we have plants which were put 
out many years ago in the mo4 perfect health, but, 
unfortunately, their growth ha< been so slaw as to 
render the prospect of any profitable return from them 
almost hopeless. Still is strik-s me that in places geo- 
graphically better situa'el for ipecacuanha growing 
than Sikkim, that this particular variety may succeed 
although other sorts may have failed. Probably our 
ipecacuauha experiments may prove another instance 
of the folly of giving up the cultivation of new crops 
as hopeless until the most exhaustive experiments have 
been carried out. It may be that there are even 
hardier varieties of ipecacuanha than the ' Kew variety ' 
to be found." 
Dr. King's prediction in 1878, that the climate of 
S'ngapore would be found well adapted to ipecacuanha, 
has been abundantly verified, as will be seen from Mr. 
Cintley's report on the Forest Department of the 
Straits Settlement for 1886, dated July 4, 1887, p. 20:— 
" Ipecacuanha (Cephaelis Ipecacuanha), a native of 
Brazil, and a plant which has been found generally very 
difficult to cultivate, seems to grow in the Straits with 
all the luxuriance of its native country when a proper 
situation is hit upon. It enjoys a very moist, still 
atmosphere, and somewhat dense shade. In the Straits 
it forms a compact little bush of about 18 inches in 
height and is very ornamental when well in flower. I 
lately visited a plantation of the plant in Johore, and 
saw thousands of plants in excellent health. They were 
protected from the sun by palm leaves laid side by side 
on artifici il supports about 6 feet in height ; hedges of 
the same material were put down a few yards apart. 
Soil, chocolate colour, rich in vegetable matter, wood 
ashes, &c." 
There can he little doubt tint Johore was the source 
of the consignment of ipecacuanha which foun J its 
way into the London market at the latter end of 1887. 
This was the first commercial sample of the drug 
produ-ied in the old world. It was at first supposed 
to be of Indian origin, and a report upon its examina- 
tion is given by Mr. Francis Bin^om in the Journal 
of the Pharmaceutical Society for No emher 12th, 
1887, p. 400. He found 1-7 per cent, of emetine in 
the root, the average strength ot the Brazilian drug 
being 1'6G p r cent. He concludes, uherefore, that 
" the Indian [so-called] cultivated ipecacunha is quite 
equal to the average Brazilian root." 
Nothing is known of the history of the plant grown 
in the Johore plantation. It is however probab'e 
that they were derived from Sikkim, though f im- 
plants were sent from Kew to Singapore in 1*75. 
