CiiAP, XXXI 
CINCHONA BAEK. 
647 
Having waited a month for the commencement of the healthy 
season at Kilimane, I would have started at the beginning of 
April, but tarried a few days in order that the moon might make 
her appearance, and enable me to take lunar observations on my 
way down the river. A sudden change of temperature happenhig 
on the 4th, simultaneously with the appearance of the new moon, 
the Commandant and myself, with nearly every person in the 
house, were laid up with a severe attack of fever, I soon re¬ 
covered by the use of my wonted remedies, but Major Sicard and 
his little boy were confined much longer. There was a general 
fall of 4° of temperature from the middle of March, 84° at 9 a.m. 
and 87° at 9 p.m. ; -the greatest heat being 90° at mid-day, and 
the lowest 81° at sunrise. It afforded me pleasure to attend the 
invahds in their siclmess, though I was unable to show a tithe of 
the gTatitude I felt for the Commandant’s increasmg kindness. 
My quinine and other remedies were nearly all expended, and 
no fresh supply was to be found here, there being no doctors at 
Tete, and only one apothecary with the troops, whose stock of 
medicine was also small. The Portuguese, however, informed 
me that they had the cinchona bark gTOwing in their country— 
that there was a little of it to be found at Tete—whole forests of 
it at Senna and near the delta of Kilimane. It seems quite a 
providential arrangement, that the remedy for fever should be 
found in the greatest abundance where it is most needed. On 
seeing the leaves, I stated that it was not the Cinchona longifolia^ 
from wliich it is supposed the quinine of commerce is extracted, 
but the name and properties of tliis bark made me imagine that 
it was a cinchonaceous tree. I could not get the flower, but when 
I went to Senna I tried to bring away a few small living trees 
with earth in a box. They, however, all died when we came to 
Kilimane. Failing in tliis mode of testing the point, I submitted 
a few leaves and seed-vessels to my friend. Dr. Hooker, who 
kmdly informs me that they belong “ apparently to an apocy- 
neous plant, very nearly allied to the Malouetia Heudlotii (of 
Decaisne), a native of Senegambia.” Dr. H. adds, “ Various 
plants of this natural order are reputed powerful febrifuges, and 
some of them are said to equal the cinchona in their effects.” 
It is called m the native tongue Kumbanzo. 
The flowers are reported to be white. The pods are in pairs, a 
