A*'Jnvl'mt*'}      Cinchona  Trees  Grown  in  India.  27 
trunks  of  the  uprooted  forest,  in  place  of  which  cinchona-trees  were 
expected  to  flourish.  The  same  or  a  differerent  cause  may  have  led 
to  the  existence  of  this  fungus  on  the  trees  at  Ootacamund.  Mr* 
M'lvor  explained  the  evil  as  arising  from  the  earth  being  heaped  up 
for  some  inches  around  the  base  of  the  trunk,  in  which  case  it  may 
have  had  a  simply  local  origin.  All  the  cinchonse  are  impatient  of 
water  at  the  roots,  and  if  the  water  lodges  in  the  least  in  the  subsoil, 
although  it  may  be  a  place  where  there  is  an  excellent  fall  and  sur- 
face drainage,  there  is  a  bald  patch  in  the  plantation.  Mr.  Howard's 
chemical  examination  of  the  bark  proved  in  the  first  place  that  an 
anticipation  of  Mr.  Broughton's  was  not  verified.  The  Government 
quinologist  expressed  a  doubt  whether  the  quality  of  the  bark  would 
not  be  damaged  by  allowing  it  to  dry  on  the  tree,  since  he  had  found 
that  if  a  tree  dies  from  any  cause  its  bark  loses  its  alkaloids  in  a  few 
weeks.  Possibly  in  this  case  the  sudden  death  of  the  tree  prevented 
any  abnormal  circulation.  The  bark  (of  Q.  succirubra)  yielded  3*54 
per  cent,  of  alkaloids,  of  which  only  0.82  proved  to  be  quinine,  the 
rest  cinchonidine  and  cinchonine — the  former  pure  and  good  ;  the 
latter,  on  the  contrary,  losing  much  weight  in  refining.  The  bark, 
in  fact,  resembled  that  taken  from  similar  trees  in  the  ordinary 
method.  The  bark  of  the  roots  is  so  thin,  and  adheres  with  so  much 
pertinacity  to  the  wood,  that  it  would  seem  lost  labor  to  attempt  its 
separation  in  any  quantity  in  the  dry  state,  whatever  may  be  the 
case  when  the  roots  are  freshly  removed  from  the  earth.  The  ex- 
amination of  the  heart-wood  yielded  to  the  author  results  analogous 
to  that  from  South  American  trees,  with  this  exception,  that  he  found 
less  cinchotannic  acid  than  in  the  wood  from  South  America,  and  also 
a  small  portion  of  chlorophyll.  In  the  course  of  some  further  re- 
marks Mr.  Howard  said  he  hoped  the  examination  of  the  leaves  of 
these  plants  might  afford  some  topics  of  interest.  He  showed  a 
botanical  specimen  of  the  valuable  variety  of  0.  officinalis,  known  as 
the  lanceolate.  Mr.  Broughton  and  Mr.  Howard  had  both  found  an 
unusually  large  percentage  of  alkaloids  from  this  bark,  not  less 
than  11-40  per  cent.,  and  9*75  of  quinine.  The  Pitayo  species 
,  and  the  variety  of  C.  officinalis  known  as  Amarilla  del  rey,  were 
also  very  valuable,  and  should  be  cultivated,  but  the  last-named  it 
was  now  impossible  to  procure.  By  devoting  attention  to  such  points, 
by  encouraging  the  best  species,  and  by  high  cultivation,  the  under- 
taking of  Indian  acclimatization  will  become  one  of  pecuniary  profit. 
