Present State of the Genus Cinchona. 27 
same plant under whatever form, and it was supposed that 
this was the case with the cinchonze when the genus was 
first established. The Quzna primitiva was supposed to 
have a kind of recognised ¢yfzcal character, and a superi- 
ority which was claimed as distinguishing the bark of Peru, 
or of New Granada, as viewed by the advocates of the 
products of these different regions. It was thought suf- 
ficient to distinguish a few varying kinds of cinchonaceous 
plants that were at first recognised -by the prevalent form 
of the leaf as cordifolia, lanctfolia, oblongifolia, ovalt- 
folia, &c., thus confounding together even different genera 
through a premature classification. 
This systematising tendency has since, in the opinion of 
the writer, led to the grouping together of cinchone 
essentially different, since the reality much more resembles 
what might be the case, if there existed amongst the 
varieties of salix some which closely approximated, in the 
time and the bark, to the oak and others which in these 
respects counterfeited the hazel, or as if a variety were to 
surprise us by producing quinine instead of salicine. 
Thus the ovate or cordate or lanceolate form of leaf 
may appear to link together species of cinchona, which, on 
more profound study, may be seen to be entirely diverse 
in their character. 
The writer may be permitted to illustrate his meaning 
as to premature attempts at systematic nomenclature by 
reference to another department of scicnce, taking as an 
instance the names of the alkaloids produced by these 
same plants, which, according to the first impressions, 
ranged thus :-— 
Quinine. Cinchonine. 
Quinidine. Cinchonidine. 
Quinicine. Cinchonicine. 
Further and more careful examinations shows a different 
arrangement, as indicated by their properties in reference 
to the ray of plane polarized light :— 
Quinine. Cinchonine. Cinchonicine. 
Cinchonidine. Quinidine. Quinicine. 
Powerfully levogyrate. Pre-eminently dextrogyrate. Feebly dextrogyrate. 
This latter being the true relation, as shown by Dr. 
Herepath in his communications to the Royal Society, on 
chemical grounds, and by Mr. Howard in Reports to the 
Under-Secretary of State for India, on specimens of bark 
grown in that country, from which it appears that it is the 
