INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  CINCHONA  TREES  INTO  INDIA. 
33 
ON  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  CINCHONA  TREES  INTO 
INDIA. 
For  some  years  past,  great  anxiety  has  been  experienced  in 
this  country  and  other  parts  of  Europe,  in  consequence  of  the 
enormous  demand  for  Cinchona  barks,  and  the  increasing  diffi- 
culty of  supplying  that  demand.  It  was  feared,  from  the  little 
consideration  shown  by  the  natives  of  the  bark  districts  of  Peru 
and  Bolivia  in  felling  the  trees  without  taking  any  measures  to 
plant  others  to  supply  the  place  of  those  thus  destroyed  by 
them,  that  a  time  must  arrive,  and  that  at  no  very  distant 
period,  when  the  supply  of  Cinchona  bark  would  altogether  fail. 
Hence,  it  became  very  desirable  that  the  European  Govern- 
ments possessing  colonies  with  climates  adapted  for  the  growth 
of  the  Cinchonas,  should  endeavor  to  obtain  supplies  of  seeds  and 
plants  of  the  best  species,  and  establish  them  in  their  own  pos- 
sessions. 
Some  years  since.  Dr.  Weddell,  a  most  experienced  botanist 
and  enterprising  traveller,  proceeded  to  the  Cinchona  districts, 
and  succeeded,  by  means  of  great  energy  and  hardihood,  in 
elucidating  much  that  had  been  hitherto  obscure  as  to  the 
botanical  origin  of  many  of  the  barks  in  common  use  in  Europe. 
At  the  same  time  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  some  seeds,  which 
he  brought  to  Paris  in  1848.  From  these  seeds  plants  were 
afterwards  raised,  both  in  Paris  and  at  the  Horticultural  So- 
ciety's garden  at  Chiswick,  but  no  attempt,  to  any  extent  at 
least,  was  made  by  Dr.  Weddell  or  the  French  Government  to 
acclimatize  the  Cinchonas  in  any  part  of  the  French  possessions. 
A  few  years  after  Dr.  Weddell's  return  to  Europe,  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Dutch  government  was  directed  to  this  important 
subject,  and  M.  Pahud,  the  governor  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
sent  a  very  intelligent  gardener,  M.  Hasskarl,  to  Peru  and 
Bolivia,  for  the  express  purpose  of  obtaining  a  supply  of  plants 
and  seeds  of  the  Cinchonas,  for  transportation  to  the  Island  of 
Java,  where  it  is  believed  that  a  favorable  soil  and  climate  might 
be  found  for  their  successful  growth.  After  a  residence  of  two 
years  and  a  half  in  Peru,  M.  Hasskarl  succeeded  (through  the 
agency,  it  is  said,  of  one  Henriquez,  who  was  imprisoned  in 
Bolivia  for  having  supplied  him)  in  procuring  about  400  plants 
3 
