212 
THE CIITCHOE’A TRIBE. 
On the coasts °f Aew Andalusia, the cuspa is considered 
as a kind of cinchona; and we were assured, that some 
A ragonese monks, who had long resided in the kingdom of 
INew Grenada, recognised this tree from the resemblance 
ot its leaves to those of the real Peruvian-bark tree. This 
however, is unfounded; since it is precisely by the dis- 
position of the leaves, and the absence of stipules that 
the cuspa differs totally from the trees of the rubiaceous 
family. It may be said to resemble the family of the honey- 
suckle, or caprifoliaceous plants, one section of which has 
alternate leaves, and among which we find several cornel- 
trees, remarkable for their febrifuge properties.* 
The taste, at once bitter and astringent, and the yellow 
colour of the bark led to the discovery of the febrifugal 
°fthe cuspa. As it blossoms at the end of November 
we did not see it in flower, and we know not to what genus 
it belongs ; and I have in vain for several years past applied 
to our friends at Cumana for specimens of the flower and 
fruit. I hope that the botanical determination of the bark- 
tree of New Andalusia will one day fix the attention of 
travellers, who visit this region after us ; and that they will 
not confound, notwithstanding the analogy of the names 
the cuspa with the cuspare. The latter not only vegetates 
in the missions of the Xiio Carony, but also to the west of 
Cumana, in the gulf of Santa Fe. It furnishes the drugoists 
ol Europe with the famous Cortex Angosturse, and forms 
the genus Bonplandia, described by M. WiUdenouw in the 
Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, from notes communi- 
cated to him bv us. 
It is singular that, during our long abode on the coast of 
Cumana and the Caracas, on the banks of the Apure, the 
Orinoco, and the Bio Negro, in an extent of country com- 
pnsing forty thousand square leagues, we never met with one 
of those numerous species of cinchona, or exostema, which are 
peculiar to the low and warm regions of the tropics, especi- 
aUy to the archipelago of the West India Islands. Yet w* 
are far from aflirming, that, throughout the whole of the 
eastern part of South America, from Porto Bello to Cayenne, 
* Comus florida, and C. sericea of the United States. — Walker on 
the Virtues of the Cornus and the Cinchona compared. Philadelphia. 
