''"i'lSr"'  }        Botanical  Source  of  Cuprea  Bark.  297 
the  memory  of  the  surgeon  Remijo,  to  whom  is  due  the  use  of  these 
plants  as  febrifuges,  gave  to  his  genus  the  name  of  Remijia ;  This 
genus  is  evidently  very  near  to  Cinchona,  and  its  affiuity  has  been  ren- 
dered still  more  close  by  the  discovery  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids  in  the 
Columbian  species  of  Remijia;  but  it  is  clearly  distinguished  from 
Cinchona  by  its  axillary  inflorescence,  and  its  capsules  dehiscing  from 
above  downwards.  In  the  last  character,  as  well  as  in  the  analogy  of 
the  structure  of  their  barks,  the  species  of  Remijia  approach  more 
nearly  to  the  genus  Cascarilla;  but  from  this  genus  they  differ  in  the 
prominent  and  remarkable  character  of  the  axillary  inflorescence,  and 
also  by  the  presence  of  alkaloids  in  their  barks,  which  have  not  hith- 
erto been  discovered  in  the  genus  Cascarilla. 
The  genus  Remijia  presents,  then,  characters  sufficiently  well  defined 
and  constant  to  keep  it  distinct  from  the  tAvo  genera  most  nearly  allied 
to  it,  viz.,  Cinchona  and  Cascarilla. 
By  the  chemical  composition  of  their  barks,  the  ^^remijias"  must 
now  take  an  important  place  in  conmierce  and  in  therapeutics  by  the 
side  of  the  cinchonas,  of  which  they  are  becoming  rivals,  which  con- 
firms te  foresight  of  Remijo  and  St.  Hillaire.  Henceforth  the  two 
groups  of  plants  will  be  coupled  together,  and  as  the  name  Cinchona, 
given  by  Linnseus  to  the  tree  of  which  the  bark  cured  the  Countess  of 
Chinchon,  will  recall  this  fact,  that  of  Remijia  will  preserve  an  ana- 
logous one  from  being  forgotten. 
Beside  the  generic  characters  which  I  have  defined,  the  original 
species  of  Remijia,  as  well  as  those  subsequently  published,  have,  as 
De  Candolle  remarks,  a  peculiar  stamp  Avhich  distinguishes  them  at 
flrst  sight  from  the  cinchonas,  and  which  consists  of  a  shrubby  habit, 
in  the  leaves  being  sometimes  in  whorls  of  three,  particularly  the 
lower  ones,  in  the  brandies  and  inflorescence  being  covered  with  a 
reddish  pubescence,  and  in  quadrifid  Avoody  capsules."  But  these  dis- 
tinctions, due  to  collateral  circumstances,  diminish  in  other  species, 
-especially  in  the  two  Columbian  species  herein  noticed.  Their  glab- 
rescent  foliage,  and  esjiecially  tlieir  coriaceous,  bipartite  and  relatively 
small  capsules,  give  them  a  considerable  resemblance  to  several  of  the 
officinal  cinchonas.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  it  is  to  this  sinu'lar- 
ity  that  the  discovery  of  cuprea  cinchona,  which  has  undoubtedly  been 
made  by  persons  without  S(Mentifi('  (jualifications,  is  due.  Perhaps  Ji 
botanist  would  have  done  as  I  myself  did,  when  I  discovered  Remijia 
peduncnlata,  and  would  have  refused  to  admit  this  ti'ee  among  those 
