CHEMICAL AND MICROSCOPICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 
7 
well sliown in a photograph which Colonel Scott has recently had the goodness to send me of a portion of 
his plantation.* * The characteristic features of the C. succirubra and the C. niticla are very manifest in this 
Plate. 
The first instalment of the produce of the plantations in Ceylon, consisting of two small chests, has 
recently (April, 1868) been sold by public auction in London. The bark was that of C. succirubra and of 
C. officinalis, of only three years’ growth, and consequently very immature. The bark of the C. officinalis was 
ascertained to contain already a good proportion of Quinine, having found a climate suited to its development. 
The price per pound which was commanded in the open market for home consumption was higher 
than that of South American bark of the same age and species, since it proved to be superior in yield of 
alkaloid to that derived from the tree in its native habitat. Cultivation, in fact, had produced its usual 
effect, by removing as far as possible injurious agencies and surrounding the plant with circumstances 
qualified to secure its growth and vigour. 
This is the favourable side of the question ; but it must be admitted that the increase is slow, although 
fostered by the genial climate of the mountains of India, and that cultivators must make up their minds to 
wait longer than is convenient for returns from their outlay of capital, unless the production of bark can 
be in some manner accelerated. 
Mossing the Bark. 
Under these circumstances, it is well that Mr. MTvor should have discovered the plan of renewing the 
bark, after it has been removed from portions of the tree, by the simple application of moss, kept continually 
moist, thus allowing the plant time and favourable opportunity to repair the damage done to its structure. 
This damage would otherwise be fatal to the whole scheme, and hence the old writers exclaim against the 
injury thus inflicted upon the trees at Loja,f where the experiment of partial decortication was first 
tried. I received from Mr. MTvor, in 1864, a section of a tree which has been thus treated in India, and 
which most conclusively shows the great amount of injury it had received. Not only is the woody portion 
less developed than would normally have been the case, where the bark has been removed on the two 
opposite sides, but the wood itself is also partially deprived of its vitality and tending towards decay. 
Mr. MTvor tells us that his “ idea of artificially applying moss to the bark of our Cinchona plants 
originated from the fact that the best Cinchona bark of commerce is invariably overgrown with moss. 
Hence the supposition that moss preserved the alkaloids from the process of oxidation or deterioration, 
which they apparently undergo when the bark is long exposed to the full action of light. 
This is an interesting account of the mental process through which the discovery was originated, 
and it is to be regretted that in describing it Mr. MTvor should have named moss instead of lichen, the 
closely-adhering thallus of the various sorts of which does no doubt produce effects similar to those described. § 
“ Moss ” is scarcely ever seen on good barks, except on branches which have trailed along the ground. 
Mr. MTvor’s plan is thus described by himself || : — “In removing the strip of bark, two parallel cuts 
should be made down the stem at the distance apart of the intended width of the strip of bark ; this done, 
the bark is raised. from the sides of the cut and drawn off, beginning from the bottom; care being taken 
not to press or injure the sappy matter ( cambium ) left upon the stem of the tree. This cambium , or sappy 
matter, immediately granulates on the removal of the bark, and being covered, forms a new bark, which 
maintains the circulation undisturbed.” Mr. Broughton says in a letter to me (December 27, 1867) : — 
Reunion, in Guadaloupe and in Martinique, in Algeria, Rio de Janeiro, St. Helena, the Canaries, and the Azores, at Melbourne 
in Australia, in the Caucasus,— probably also in other places. Java, British India, and Ceylon, I need not again mention. 
* Taymullay, near Soonda-betta Peak. See Markham’s Map of the Neilgherries. 
f See 111. Nueva Quin, sub voce Uritusinga, p. 3. J Return, etc. (as above), p. 167. 
§ And yet lichens tied upon the barked trees are injurious, and to be carefully rejected, as generating a fungus which injures 
the wood of the plants (see the same page). II Return, etc., p. 167. 
