388 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
subject at the previous meeting. He need say nothing to ensure attention to 
the beautiful living specimens of cinchona plants which were put on the table 
by Mr. Howard, and would be referred to in the paper about to be read. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF CINCHONA PLANTS UNDER 
GLASS IN ENGLAND. 
BY JOHN ELIOT HOWARD, F.L.S. 
Since first I had the satisfaction of raising the C. officinalis from seed sent 
me from the mountains of Uritusinga, I have devoted some attention to the 
cultivation of different species of cinchona under glass. This has extended 
over a period of about ten years, during the larger portion of which my experi¬ 
ments have been carried on in a conservatory which I had constructed for the 
purpose, and which, though on quite a limited scale, enables me to estimate 
what might be done by means of the appliances at the disposal of the directors 
of our botanic gardens. I have worked through a fair amount of mistakes and 
misfortunes, and have now about twenty different forms (species or varieties) 
of Cinchona in various stages of development; and of these, recently flowering, 
one plant of the C. officinalis * one of the var. Colorada del Rey, and one 
very forward in bud of the (as yet undescribed) C. Forbesiana. I have also 
still in blossom a plant of the Howardia Caracasensis about ten feet in height, 
and covered with flowers for the last two or three months. Such a result, if 
exhibited to the whole pharmaceutical world, as it might be at Kew, could not 
fail to excite interest, and, moreover, the possession of living plants gives the 
opportunity of observing many things not apparent in dried specimens. 
The facilities thus afforded for physiological investigation are also very im¬ 
portant to those who delight to trace the beautiful contrivances and manifest 
design everywhere apparent in nature, and to whom well-observed facts are 
more interesting than mere mechanical theories of vegetation. As an instance, 
1 was recently examining, together with a botanist well acquainted with 
the Cinchonce in their native woods, some beautiful trebly-scrobiculate leaves of 
my plants, and we agreed that inspection demonstrated the improbability of 
a theory recently advanced as regards the scrobiculation, which ascribes its 
origin to an inherited defect derived from the attacks of insects. The truth 
being, on the contrary (as I have often observed), that insects are not found 
to attack this part of the leaf in preference, but are much more addicted to 
some other portion of the plant. The additional beauty of the leaf derived from 
the scrobicules and their great regularity must be seen to be appreciated, pre¬ 
senting an appearance quite unlike that of an accidental monstrosity. 
As to the light to be thus thrown on botanical arrangement, I may mention 
the opportunity afforded of raising the seeds proceeding from the same bunch 
of capsules, and observing thus, as I am doing at the present moment, the 
amount of variation to be observed in the children of one parent plant. 
The very difficulties to be overcome in imitating, as far as possible, the climate 
and soil of the mountain regions of the Andes, present many subjects of not un¬ 
fruitful consideration. 
The influence of light upon vegetation will force itself upon the attention in 
all the varied aspects of the question, as, indeed, presenting some of the most 
* This plant was cut down, and the produce of sulph. quinine which I derived from it is 
recorded in my * Quinology of the East Indian Plantations,’ p. 3. It is now again grown up to a 
height of 8 feet 6 inches. Mr. Broughton has recently found in five exceptionally fine trees, 
descendants of the sister of the above, 6'20. of purified alkaloids per cent. 
Or sulphate of quinine (obtained crystallized) 3'46 per cent, 
sulphate of cinchonidin „ 1'94 „ 
Also cinchonine. 
