THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1882. 
I reflect, however, that amongst the private cult- 
ivators tbere are some who gladly avail themselves 
of the besb scientific information they can obtain ; 
and who will find in the end that they have done 
well to attend to the careful discrimination of the 
species, and also of the forms of the species, and 
in giving their attention to the cultivation only of those 
most adapted to their purpose. 
Prom the observations of Mr. Spruce I do 
not suppose that it is easy for an unpractised eye 
to discriminate between these species when not in 
flower; but Mr. Cross writes to me that he alone 
saw the tree in its native habitat and collected the 
plants at the foot of a precipice when in company 
with the son of a cascarillero. It is, at all events, 
rather late now to attempt any separation. The seed 
of the different species has been put by the col- 
lectors into the same bags, so that all is uncertainty. 
The Jamaica sort seems to me to represent very per- 
fectly the subpubescent type of a true G. succirubra, 
according to the specimen described by Klotzsch. It 
is, moreover, richer in alkaloid than the average Red 
Bark of the East Indies, which for the most part 
(but not without exception of better qualities) must 
belong to the glabrous type. 
I have, now growing, a plant of a kindred sort, 
the var. pubescens of Mclvor, and am not disinclined 
to think that it may be (after all) one of the cognate 
species as mentioned above, instead of a hybrid. If 
I can succeed in getting it to flower, I shall per- 
haps be able to solve the question. 
Professor Trimen, Director of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Ceylon, says in Report for 1880 : — 
"1 have also received from the Government plant- 
ation at Nedivvuttum, Nilgris, a Wardian case with 
some young plants of the kind called* C. officinalis, 
var. pubescens by Mr. Howard, but considered a hybrid 
by the late Mr. Mclvor. Owing to the remarkably 
careless packing these were nearly all dead on arrival, 
but a few have survived and are doing well. They 
possess much the appearance of 0. succirubra at present." 
I am informed by a private cultivator in Ceylon 
that it forms a handsome tree, differing in its mode 
of growth from G. succirubra. (See Appendix.) 
Another planter tells me he has of this soi-t, which 
he identifies with the tree in my possession, not less 
than 300,000 plants in various stages, from which he 
expects great results. 
I must now draw to a conclusion this I fear, rather 
prolonged paper by suggesting as a subject for dis- 
cussion, what is the difference in therapeutic efficacy 
between pharmaceutical preparations of C. succirubra 
and C. officinalis? 
It is probable that in future these will almost ex- 
clusively be made from the barks grown in India, and 
at present the former seems to be the most recommended. 
1 cannot believe that the medicinal effect will be the 
same in both cases. I have before stated that the 
asti'i ugi nt principle shows an entire divergence in the 
two different barks as tested by various reagents. 
1 am not aware that either in one case or the other 
any medicinal inquiry has taken place. The same 
observation may be made as to the remaining con- 
stituents of the C. succirubra and the C. officinalis, in 
the former caee much more complicated than in the 
latter. 
The supply of cultivated bark from South America 
will probably go entirely into the hands of the quinine 
manufacturers. This may also be the case with the 
best of the G. officinalis, but much of what is cult- 
ivated is of an inferior description. 
I will not add anything respecting the relative 
* 1 simply wuggehted it being called " var. pubescens," 
looking upon it as a hybrid. It is quite unlike C. offic- 
inalis. It would be better to call it (simply) "Howard's 
*ort." 
constituents in alkaloids, but conclude with an observ- 
ation of Lord Bacon (quoted by Dr. Kentish, one 
of the early writers (1784) on Peruvian bark), that 
mankind are far too apt to contemplate nature as if 
from the top of a tower, without descending t'> the 
investigation of details.* 
Practically, however, the substitution of theory for 
scientific investigation is sure to lead to very unsatis- 
factory results. 
In the present instance we have the following 
confusion : — 
When "Red Bark" is spoken or written about, it 
may be the produce of — 
(A) ". G. succirubra. 
a. Glabrous form. 
(3. Subpubescent form. 
or — 
(B) . Coccinea, Pa von, (?). Pa to de Gallinazo. 
or — 
(C) . "Pubescent" sort of Howard, 
or — 
(D) . C. conghmerata, Pa von., case. Colorado, pro- 
ducing, according to Cross, the morada sort of Red 
Bark, of which I send specimen [G]. 
or — 
(E). C. erythrantha, Pav. (?) case, cuchicara. 
APPENDIX. 
[Remarks written by R. Spruce on my Quinologia. 
' Notula ad Quinologiam novum Spectandce, R.S.'] 
Cinchona. 
" C. coccinea, Pav., Pato di Gallinazo (Ecuador).— 
Plainly the true Pata di Gallinazo of the Quitensiau 
Andes, and seen by me in the very same localities 
(Chillanes, Guaranda), also in valleys of Pallatanza 
and Alausi. I could not distinguish it by the leaves 
alone from the Cuchicara, growing along with it, but 
the Indians say they can alwiya tell it. Its bark 
has some commercial value, that of the cuclikara 
none. The two agree in the very stout leaf veins, 
the corymbose inflorescence and the dull scarlet or 
brick-red colour of the flowers, quite different from 
the red or roseate hue of the flowers of most other 
cinchonas, 
" C. erythrantha, Fay., compared with the Pataili 
Gallinazo by Pavon himself, is probably true cuchicara. 
The acute venation and the locality (bill forests of 
Guayaquil and Jaen) seem to confirm this view. 
" C. conghmerata, Par. — Except for the elongated 
panicle, this much resembles a pubescent form of the 
cuchicara." 
Appendix. 
{Extract from ' Nueva Quinologia,' C. succirubra, p. 14.] 
"In the red bark it is to be remarked that the 
brick-red colour, which as Ruiz observes, is not found 
in the growing plant, but in the dried bark, is really 
an excretory product of vegetation, a part used up 
and brought by contact with the air into a state in 
which it can no longer be serviceable to the living 
plant and from which it degenerates by a still further 
degradation into humus, as we have reason to con- 
clude, both from following out the above experiments 
on the changes of colours to their last result, and 
from observing analogous changes in the bark itself 
as it verges towards its latest stage. The pieces of 
flat red bark possessing the finest colour are generally 
remarkable for their specific lightness, having a texture 
analogous to that of wood that has lost its firmness 
by incipient decay. Indeed, it is by a process of 
erernacausis that the red bark acquires its colour; 
* Solent autem homines naturam tanquam ex praealta 
turri et a longe despicere, et circa generalia niminm occu- 
pari : quaudo, si descendere placuit, et ad particularia 
acciclere, resque ipsas attentius et diligentius inspicere, 
magjs vera et utilis foret comprehensio.— L. ii., cap. 1. 
