CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 949 
portant questions relating to the cinchona cultivation, the 
best conditions of growth, the time for harvesting, and the 
mode of gathering the bark. Upwards of a million plants 
were then permanently planted out, some being 25 feet high 
and 32 inches in girth. The time, therefore, in the opinion 
of the Government, had arrived for the adoption of some 
systematic course for utilising the very large quantity of 
febrifuge alkaloids now stored in the bark of the trees. This 
O 
would be best obtained by a constant system of annual 
harvestings. Owing also to the large number of trees in a 
sufficiently advanced stage of growth to yield bark suitable 
for the extraction of alkaloids, the question was under con- 
sideration, whether this should be used in the manufactory 
at Ootacamund, in the Neilgherries, for the supply of the 
hospitals in India, or be sent to the London market, or 
whether a portion should be sent home, and a portion 
worked up on the spot. Also whether the plantations 
should remain in the hands of the Government for the 
supply of quinine to the hospitals, and the distribution of 
seeds and plants throughout India, or be eventually disposed 
of, as in the case of the Assam tea plantations. Thus far, 
therefore, the experiment may be regarded as having entered 
upon that point wffien the cultivation might be left to the 
natural course of commerce, and the Government could 
withdraw without detriment to the future prosperity of the 
undertaking. 
Any notice of cinchona cultivation would be incomplete 
without paying some passing tribute to the Spanish botanists, 
Ruez, Pavon, and Tafalla, who made an expedition to Peru 
and Chili, in the end of the last century, and wffiose efforts 
resulted in the discovery of numerous cinchonae, some of 
which are now growing in India. Their magnificent col- 
lection of plants was entrusted to a Royal Commission for 
arrangement and publication, whilst the results of their labours 
may be found in the ‘ Flora Peruviana/ the f Quinologia 3 of 
Ruiz, with its supplement, and the 'Nueva Quinologia 5 of 
Pavon, recently edited by Mr. Howard. When the commis- 
sion had completed its labours, the specimens were deposited 
in the Herbarium at Madrid, where they are kept apart in 
two large bundles. It may be added that the very interest- 
ing and voluminous report of the India Office, extending 
over nearly three hundred pages of matter of the most varied 
description, has been greatly facilitated in its perusal by the 
very admirably arranged index at the commencement of the 
book. 
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