June i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
2J 
growing wild on the slopes of the Andes, in Peru, 
Ecuador, and Colombia ; and the late Dr. Royle, the 
reporter on Indian products, did all in his power to 
further the design ; but no real progress was made. 
Early in 1859 the subject was brought before Mr. 
Markham by Mr. Henry Deedes, of the Indian Office. 
For other scientific purposes Mr. Markham had already 
visited the chinchona regions of South America, and had 
become familiar with the people, and master of their lan- 
guages. In March, 1859, Mr. Markham proposed apian 
of operations and laid it, with an offer of his services, 
before the present Lord Derby, then the first Secret- 
ary of State for India under the system of govern- 
ment which the year before had superseded the old 
Court of Directors. On the 8th of April (1859) Mr. 
Markham's proposals were accepted, and he was duly 
commissioned to carry them into effect. Mr. Markham 
left England in December, 1859, for South America, 
taking with him Mrs. Markham, who, it was arranged, 
should remain at a point near the coast to conduct 
correspondence, &c, while her husband and his party 
explored the forests east of the Andes. The " fellow 
labourers " of Mr. Markham, as he calls them, were : — 
In the capacity of coadjutors, Dr. Spruce and Mr. 
Pritchett ; — and as assistants, practical gardeners, Mr. 
Weir and Mr. Cross. Dr. Spruce was a Yorkshireman, 
born not far from the pleasant village of Stillingfleet, 
which has the honour to claim Mr. Markham himself 
as a native. Richard Spruce is from Welburn, near 
Castle Howard, and very early in youth distinguished 
himself by his knowledge of the botany of the roman- 
tic neighbourhood of that village. He had, like his 
leader, already visited South America. In collect- 
ing the grey bark trees of Huanuco the services 
were secured of Mr. Pritchett, who had been for 
some time agent of the Ecuador Land Company. 
John Weir was a practical gardener obtained 
from Mr. Veitch ; and Robert Cross was an able and 
painstaking Scotchman from Kew. Mr. Ledger was 
also associated with the expedition. Of all these 
fellow- workers Mr. Markham speaks in terms of the 
highest praise ; and we are ashamed to say that as 
regards each of them he has to utter bitter 
complaints of the shabby and unjust treatment they 
received at the hands of the Indian and the Home 
Governments. The details given by Mr. Markham 
leave no doubt that the recompense awarded to these 
men for all their perils, their attainments, and their 
success was emphatically paltry, and very far below 
the justice of their claims. Will the time ever 
come in this country when scientific labours, even 
the most distinguished, will not be estimated by the 
officials of the Government on a scale suitable only 
to a mechanic or a footman ? There are titles, pay, 
and pensions in profusion for military and dip- 
lomatic services more frequently pernicious than 
useful ; but the scientific discoverer or explorer is 
more likely to meet with contempt than recompense 
by the "department" he serves. 
In the course of 1861, after encountering great hard- 
ships and no small peril in the South American forests, 
considerable supplies of the desiredspecimens were landed 
in England and India. For the interesting narrative 
of these hardships and perils the volume must be 
consulted. The region sdectrd for the first chinchona 
plantations in India was that of the Nilgiris hills— 
the highest mountain range south of the Himalayas 
—situated in latitude 11 deg. 10 m. and 11 deg. 
32 in. N., and longitude 7G to 78 deg. E., and af- 
fording conditions of climate suitable for the new 
cultivation. Outside India the cultivation has be- 
come snccessful and is assuming large dimensions in 
Java, Jamaica, and Mexico. During the eight years 
1867-75 the Government of India imported a total 
of 40,000 lb. of Peruvian bark, at a cost of £100,000, 
or, say, an average of 70s. per lb. Besides the Go- 
vernment imports there was a private anuual import 
7 
into India of 5,000 lb. of bark, making the total 
annual imports about 10,000 lb. weight, at an annual 
cost of about £40,000, or, say, 80s. per lb. The suc- 
cess of the Indian cultivation has already to a large 
extent put an end to this great outlay. The private 
cultivators of bark in Ceylon and India are already 
looking forward to the creation of a large market 
in China ; in which country, by reason of cheapness 
and the superior quality of the article, it is 
expected gradually to supersede opium as a 
medicine in those vast areas of delta and swamp 
where rice is principally grown and from which fever 
is never absent. It is among the possibilities of a 
future not distant, that India may make some atone« 
ment to China for the evils of the opium trade, by 
substituting for the exports of that pernicious drug 
exports still more extensive of the bark and alkaloids 
of the Peruvian tree, which has the property of 
curing and preventing the most constant and fatal 
maladies of tropical countries. 
Mr. Markham says with equal eloquence and truth 
that among the greatest of the benefits which this 
country can confer upon India is, by the aid of 
science and enterprise, to enlarge the field of useful 
products of which the diversified climates of the 
Peninsula are suitable. "By this means we shall 
leave behind us the most durable memorials of the bene- 
fits conferred by our rule. The canals and other worka 
of the Moguls were in ruins before the English occu- 
pied the country ; but the melons which the Emperor 
Akbar, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, introduced 
into India still flourish round Delhi and Agra." 
And Mr. Markham adds — but we trust with too 
small an appreciation of the stability of the Ganges 
Canal and the Vehar Reservoir — that, centuries 
after these mighty works have become, the one^ a river 
and the other a dry valley, the people of India will 
have cause to bless the healing effects of the fever- 
dispelling chinchona trees still covering the southern 
mountains with their luxuriant forests. We will 
complete the forecast by adding that in this 
distant time the hundred native casteB and tribes 
of India will remember with reverence and gratitude the 
names of the two valiant Yorkshiremen, Markham and 
Spruce, and their fellow-labourers," as the men who 
accomplished their great work in the short space of 
twenty years 1859-1879. Mr. Markham gives reasons 
for spelling the word "chinchona" and not " cin- 
chona," or "cinhona," as it was spelt byLinnsens, and 
the altered spelling has raised a botanical dispute. 
The title "chinchona" is given to the bark tree as 
a memorial of the cure of fever by its means in 1638 
of the Countess Chinchon, wife of the Governor of 
Peru.— Pall Mall Budget. 
Leaf Disease in Coffee. — A correspondent, writing 
on Leaf Disease in Coffee, says : — " Something might 
be found out of the manner the Arabs treat the coffee 
plant. Mocha is the king of coffees — either by climate 
or treatment— perhaps it is that arid climates grow 
the best. There remains no doubt of the plant bpin» 
perfection. Doctors and botanists may advise a good 
deal to counteract influences, yet Arabia is the starting 
point, because it gives the best. Dent's Concession in 
Borneo in its most arid parts should give next to Mocha. 
English coffee growers must beware that the Spaniards, 
in Manilla do not take to and surpass them in coffee 
growing. Anyone linding out the mode to dispense 
with fungus, I think must do so from Arabia. If any- 
noe cannot be found here who has been in Mocha, by 
bringing one plant with fungus upon it, and taking 
it to Mocha in a week, perhaps he might find out the 
Arabs' secret, aud from that add to his fortune in a 
treatise on the plant, and thus surpass those who can 
not dispense with fuugus. Of all the people who have 
gone to plant coffee, has one of them asked at Aden 
anything about it ? " — L. .0 C. Express. 
