20 
QUINOLOGY OF THE EAST INDIAN PLANTATIONS. 
ligneous fibre , new 'punctuated vessels ( reticulated or spheroidal ) , new laticiferous ducts.'' I have noticed in 
my Microscopical Observations on the Barks of the Cinchonse that a similar metamorphosis takes place of 
all the constituents of the hark into cork as the vessels become pressed towards the surface. 
I have now to refer to the accompanying drawings by Tuffen West, B.L.S., of sections of Bark from 
the East Indies, to show the complete reproduction of the substance of the bark, with all its parts in normal 
order and relationship to each other, and that nothing is wanting, only that the liber fibres are less numerous 
as being less necessary to strengthen the bark (thus shielded by the moss) against external influences, and 
consequently “ the renewed bark is not so heavy as original bark,” as I am informed by MTvor. 
Looking upon the plant as an organized whole, it is not surprising that from its earliest development 
it should manifest some of its peculiar characteristics. This M. Decaisne found was the case with the 
madder, for in the first days of germination, and when the plant was not provided with any other leaves 
than its two cotyledons, it already contained the same sap, capable of acquiring a reddish tint from the air, 
which distinguishes the plant, and it followed, as the result of the experiments of this botanist, “ that all 
the immediate principles obtained from the roots of the madder are but the chemical combinations of one 
only product , spread unequally through the whole vegetable.” 
This statement may possibly require some modification, but on the whole it contains the germ of much 
truth. I have in a previous work expressed a similar opinion as regards the most characteristic products of 
the Bed-bark-tree in the early stages of growth. I cannot distinguish any remarkable peculiarity in the 
sap of the plant. It soon oxidizes and turns brown, it is true, but the full development of its peculiarities 
is reserved for a later stage of growth.* Nevertheless, I believe that the characteristic features of the plant 
are owing fundamentally to one substance. Indeed, when we consider the evident fact that all the complex 
products of the vegetable world (to say nothing of the animal, although so dependent on the vegetable) 
are built up out of a few simple substances, it must necessarily appear probable that the complexity is 
in a certain sense more apparent than real, as depending more upon the different arrangement than the actual 
diversity of the elementary materials. The aliments of plants must always be either liquid or soluble or 
gaseous ; such only are capable of being taken up by the plant, either by its spongioles or through the stomata. 
All the solid parts, including even the wonder-working cell-structure, must then have originated in fluid, — 
water being both the means of conveyance of nutriment, and itself forming by far the larger proportion of 
most plants. Out of six simple non-metallic bodies — oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and 
phosphorus, — with the addition of the metallic — potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, — the whole 
Cosmos of vegetable growth around us takes its rise. It is doubtful whether any other elements! are abso- 
lutely indispensable to vegetation. To follow out, therefore, M. Decaisne’s idea that the peculiar principle 
of the madder is one , we must reflect that the red colour which is so useful in the artsj is a chemical 
phenomenon totally independent of life. On the contrary, the yellow colour appears to be the result of a 
vital action which hinders the other, and “ depends on the membranes of the cells." To distinguish, then, 
between the yellow and the red products, is simply to follow the changes of one substance from its original 
formation through its different degrees of oxidation, or, in other words, of its degeneracy. 
I have shown that the case is quite similar in reference to the Bed-bark, that no red colour exists, 
in fact, in the living tree, except as it is modified in the flowers, and in the fading leaves or bracts, or in 
* Pavon says respecting these, “ In arborum corticumque amputatione, succum lacteum primum profluit : postea in colorem 
intense rubicundum transmutatur. - ” 
Spruce says, in a paper read before the Linnean Society, December 14, 1859, that his first care was to verify a report 
that had been made to him by the collectors, to the effect that the tree ( C . succirubra ) had milky juice. This appeared strange 
and incredible in the Natural Order Pubiacem. When a slit was made in the bark by a cutlass, it soon appeared that the sap is 
actually colourless, but the instant it is exposed to the air it turns white, and in a few minutes afterwards red. The more rapidly 
this change is effected, and the deeper the ultimate tinge assumed, the more precious is the bark presumed to be. 
t My belief is that molecules of water enter as such into composition of organic structure, as well as oxygen and hydrogen, in 
atomic combination. I hesitate, therefore, whether I should not add this to the elements. J f Rccherches/ p. 19. 
