TIIE VEGETATION OF THE VIRGIN-FOREST. 
m 
ouc of the most important, the cinchona or reruviiin-hark rtee, that 
gives us the quinquina; because its home, at least that of the most 
precious species, is not the moist forest of the lowlands described 
here, hut the valleys and glens of the chain of the Andes, some 3,000 
to 0,500 feet above the sea-level. The real calysaia, that wliich of all 
cinchonas contains most of the jirccious alkaloid, aboiinds especially 
near the sources of the Beni, while the species of the flats (Cinch. 
Bcrffcnmia, Cinch. Lambertiana, Cinch, macroemmia, Cinch. Jirmula), 
though they certainly contain quinquina and cinchonin, are as yet of no 
importance to commerce. 
A romantic tale has it that a Countess Chitichon, the lady of a 
viceroy of Peru, was the first European cured by the bitter bark, of a 
\iolent fit of ague, toAvards the end of the scAcntcenth century; and 
that it was a descendant of the Incas, Avho, pronqfled by love of the 
beautitul countess who was the wife of his hereditary foe, had griani 
her the specific, until then guarded Avith jealous secrecy l)y the natives. 
IIoAvever, it was not so much the physician as the confessor of the 
noble lady, or rather the mighty Order of Avhich he Aims a member, 
Avho took advantage of the discovery by completely monopolising the 
cas(!arilha trade. Eor more than a centiuy the pounded bark came 
only through the Jesuits to the European market, under the name of 
Jesuit-poAvder. In the total alisence of regular means of communication 
with the interior, it was easy enough for the Pach’es to stifle any 
attempt at competition in their numerous Missions on the eastern shq)i5 
of tlie Andes, where, Avithont any restriction, they disposed of many 
thousands of Indians, and to ask any piice they pleased for the more 
and more appreciated drug. 
Like tlie seriugueiro of the Madeira Valley, the casearilheiro, or 
bark-collector, generally a poor half-civilised Indian or mestizo, is most 
shamefully cheated out of his small, hard-earned gains ; the traders 
ahvays contriving to get the bark at half-i»rico, aaIuIc fin- the lead 
and powder, and the halt-spoiled A’ictuals, given in exchange, they 
charge double aud treble Aalue. Yet the casearilheiro is fond of his 
Avild, roaming life, the hard-sliips aud fatigues of Avhich he Avill endure 
for months, cutting his Avay through the dense fore,st to get at the 
trees he seeks, aud carrying his heaA-y bundle of bark over hill and 
dale onl)^ to be perpetually robbed in the next village. There the 
cascarilha, or bark, is sewn into large biigs of untanned hide, and 
