158 
INTRODUCTION OF CINCHONA INTO INDIA. 
small slants had been brought in and packed in bundles, between layers of the crypto- 
gamous parasites of the coca-shrub, overlaid with coverings of palm-branches bound 
tightly together, and then enveloped in several thicknesses of the woollen fabric of the 
country called xergci. . . . 
“ They were in perfect health when put into the Wardian cases in Lima, as also when 
they arrived at Southampton.” 
Among those employed in the enterprise of collecting seeds and young plants 
of Cinchona, no one displayed a greater amount of tact, industry and patience, 
and none so great capacity for observation and such great botanical knowledge 
as Mr. Richard Spruce, the gentleman whose services were secured for obtaining 
the Red Bark. Mr. Spruce, who is well known in the botanical world, had been 
already several years in South America when he was invited to superintend an 
expedition which should visit the forests of Ecuador whence this precious bark, 
now constantly becoming more scarce, is derived. His report on this expedition 
occupies 52 folio pages and includes not only a narrative of his proceedings, but 
most interesting information on the botany, zoology and meteorology of the 
bark-yielding forests covering the lower slopes of the snowy Chimborazo. It 
is no easy task to epitomize such a report, nor would an epitome convey the 
vivid descriptions with which it abounds. All that we shall therefore state is, 
that in the commencement of the year 18G0, Mr. Spruce having purchased per¬ 
mission from the persons renting the forests of Chimborazo, or as they are called 
of Guaranda , to collect seeds and young plants of cinchona, visited those forests 
(which cover an area of some 2000 square miles) in company with Dr. Taylor 
of Riobamba and Mr. Cross; and that amid innumerable difficulties arising 
from the politically-disturbed state of the country, a fearfully unwholesome 
climate and defective means of communication, a goodly collection of seeds and 
young plants of Cinchona succirnbra was at length gathered. Of seeds, this 
collection numbered at least 100,000, while of plants, 637 were placed in 
Wardian cases for transmission to Europe and thence to India, in which latter 
country, namely at Ootacamund, 463 plants conveyed thither by Mr. Cross, 
arrived in good order. 
The impaired state of Mr. Spruce’s health precluding the possibility of fur¬ 
ther exertions, Mr. Cross, who had returned to South America from India, was 
authorized to proceed to Loxa in order to make search for Cinchona Condaminea , 
the source of Crown Bark. The zeal and intelligence which Mr. Cross had 
displayed in his previous expedition, when acting as assistant to Mr. Spruce, did 
not fail him on the present occasion ; and in the face of an edict of the Go¬ 
vernment of Ecuador prohibiting the exportation of either seeds or plants of 
the quina-tree under a penalty of 100 dollars for every plant or drachm of seed, 
he boldly started from Guayaquil in an open rowing-boat for Santa Rosa, a 
voyage of three days. Travelling over an exceedingly rough country during 
which he lost a mule, which was dashed to pieces while crossing a lofty precipi¬ 
tous ridge, he reached Loxa on the 27th September, 1861,—ten days after leav¬ 
ing Guayaquil. Much inquiry was here necessary in order to discover where 
any cinchona-trees could still be found, no one, it would seem, having any certain 
knowledge on the subject. At length, however, Mr. Cross heard that on the 
Sierra de Cajanuma, a low ridge of hills some eight miles south of Loxa, the 
bark- tree was still to be met with : and so he found it to be, though the trees 
were mostly of small dimensions and growing on precipitous places; few of 
them, moreover, bore any capsules. In this neighbourhood however, he esta¬ 
blished himself, and by dint of diligently searching the ravines from sunrise to 
sunset, day after day, contrived to collect a considerable supply of ripe seeds, 
wdiich were transmitted to Guayaquil and thence, by way of London, to India. 
These seeds, which were gathered in September, germinated freely at Ootacamund 
in the following February. 
