298 
Botanical  Souree  of  Cuprea  Bark. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      .hine,  1882. 
whose  barks  yield  alkaloids,  because  it  could  not  be  ranked  among  the 
true  cinchonas,  and  does  not  correspond  in  habit  with  those  whose  bark 
abounds  in  alkaloids. 
From  the  above  remarkable  facts,  tiiere  must  follow  results  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  science,  cinchona  cultivation,  commerce  and 
therapeutics. 
From  a  botanical  point  of  view,  several  ideas  concerning  cinchonas,, 
which  were  considered  to  be  sufficiently  established,  must  be  greatly 
modified.*  For  instance,  it  has  been  customary  to  consider  that  the 
presence  of  alkaloids  in  cinchona  w^as  exclusively  characteristic  of  the 
plants  of  the  genus  as  hitherto  limited,  and  there  have  been  those  who 
have  gone  so  for  as  to  say  that  the  chemical  analysis  might  serve 
to  control  botanical  classification,  since  alkaloids  have  never  been 
discovered  in  the  genus  CascarilUi  or  in  other  genera  allied  to 
CinGhona. 
It  is  also  admitted  that  the  trees  yieldinu:  febrifug-e  alkaloids, 
especially  those  of  Cohuubia,  as  I  have  stated  in  my  "  Nouvelles 
Etudes,"  grow  in  the  elevated  regions  of  the  Cordillera  of  the  Andes, 
where  the  temperature  is  mild  with  scarcely  any  cold,  and  prefer  the 
western  slopes  of  the  great  eastern  branch  of  the  trifurcation  of 
the  Andes,  the  other  two  branches  being  almost  destitute  of  them. 
Since  the  number  of  alkaloid-yielding  cinchonas  has  been  augumen- 
ted  by  the  addition  of  some  species  of  Remijia,  tliese  plants,  regarded 
as  a  whole,  offer  peculiarities  worthy  of  remark,  both  as  to  their  hab- 
itat and  their  geographical  distribution. 
The  officinal  "  remijias  "  of  Columbia,  as  at  present  known,  grow 
under  conditions  of  elevation,  soil,  heat  and  exposure  almost  the 
opposite  to  those  which  the  cinchonas  require,  and  they  grow  in  places 
only  a  little  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  in  the  basin  of  the  Magdalena 
river  on  one  side  and  in  the  basin  of  the  rivers  Meta,  Rio  Negro,  and 
Guaviare  on  the  other,  without  ever  reach ino^  the  elevated  summits  of 
the  Cordilleras. 
For  the  cultivation  of  the  species  yielding  febrifuge  alkaloids^ 
whether  in  their  native  country  or  elsewhere,  a  new  and  much  more 
extended  and  varied  field  is  now  opened  up,  and  enterprises  of  this  kind 
will  be  more  numerous  and  their  success  more  easy  and  certain.  The 
officinal  "remijias,"  being  more  hardy  and  natives  of  the  lower  parts 
of  the  mountains,  loving  warmth  and  not  being  affected  by  droughty 
will  lend  themselves  more  easily  to  cultivation  and  more  especially  in 
