OBSERVATIONS ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE GENUS CINCHONA. 15 
The Barks of Loja^ or “ Crown Barks^ 
Cinchona officinalis.^ LinnaBus, a. Uritusinga. —The term officinalis has been 
(jMr. Howard thiiihs most correctly) restored by Dr. Hooker to the species 
■which grew under his care from seeds sent by Don T. Riofrio, from the moun¬ 
tains of Uritusinga, near Loja. This is the Cinchona Uritusinga of Pavon, also 
the Quina-quina described bj’’ M. La Condamine, in 1738, and consequently the 
C. academica of Guibourt’s Hist, des Drogues, and the C. officinalis of Wood- 
ville’s Botany, vol. iii. p. 546. The plant flowered in the writer’s possession in 
1862, and a characteristic drawing, by Pitch, of the flowering branch, may be 
found in tab. 5364 of Curtis’s Bot. Mag., which may be compared with that of 
the same species in the ‘ Ihueva Quinologia.’ 
A plant of the above, about six feet in height, was presented by Mr. Howard 
to the Indian Government, and although it suffered from a sunstroke in the 
transit from Madras to Ootacamund, and lost all its leaves, it ■was restored, and 
by the skill of Mr. MTvor increased by cuttings to the extent of now between 
6000 and 7000 plants. It has since flowered, and a characteristic specimen has 
been brought home by Mr. Markham, together with a portion of the bark. 
A sister plant of the above, together with another, its direct descendant, 
suffered from an irruption of smoke into the stoves in the past winter, and Mr. 
Howard was compelled to cut them down. This gave the opportunity for 
examining the bark, -vdiicli yielded on percentage of the dried bark :— 
Quinine (crystallizing both as sulphate and as oxalate) . . 1-36 
Cinchonine (part cryst. from sp. w., the rest cinchonicine) 0-57 
Total . 1*93 
A produce very much the same that bark of the same kind and age might have 
yielded in its native climate, and probably the first extracted from bark growm 
in Europe. 
Although this kind has nearly become extinct in its native regions, it may 
regain its place in pharmacy, as it seems well adapted to India, and flourishes 
on the Neilgherries at an elevation of about 6000 feet. 
Several other forms range themselves around this which we now constitute 
the central plant of the group, by restoring its original name. Mr. Howard 
ventures to propose the following arrangement of these, as one rendered neces¬ 
sary for the distinction of the barks in commerce, as these will soon come from 
India, and as the only way that he can see to extricate the subject from the 
confusion into which it has been thrown by premature attempts at generali¬ 
zation. 
Cinchona officinalis.^ j3. Condaminea. —Mr. Howard would drop the barbarous 
name Chahuarguera.^ given by Pavon to this plant, wRich is really the Quina 
jjriniitiva^ as having been traditionally the one which cured the Countess of 
Chinchon. It is therefore worthy to bear the name Condaminea.^ bestow^ed 
upon it, and also on other forms of the plant by Humboldt and Bonpland, in 
whose ‘ Plantes Equinoctiales ’ it is well shown in the unshaded branch., which 
is recognized by De Candolle as a very distinct form, from the shaded flow^ering 
branch producing a different sort of bark, to be afterwards described. 
The bark of /3. Condaminea is the rusty crown bark of Pereira,'*' and of 
English commerce. M. Planchon agrees with Mr. Howard that the larger 
portions of the bark represent the Quinquina noueux of Joseph de Jussieu. 
Cinchona officinalis, y. Bonplandiana-colorata. —This form of Loja bark \vas 
called, in the time of the Spanish dominion, Colorada del Rey.'\ It'is w'ell 
* Confounded by Pereira with the ILuamalies mince et rougedtre of M. Guibourt, which 
seems to belong to C. purpurea. 
t “ The Spanish creoles still have the custom of giving the name real or del Beg to the 
best, most beautiful, and most valued articles j tlms every place has its Palma real, Quina 
del Beg, etc.” (Karsten.) 
