38        ON  THE  TREE  PRODUCING  RED  CINCHONA  BARK. 
It  must  therefore  be  fully  admitted  that  Cinchona  oblongifolia 
{Casoarilla  magnifolia,  Weddell)  is  not  the  source  of  commercial 
red  bark,  but  only  of  the  worthless  Quina  nova,  a  bark  which 
has  been  sold  at  an  extremely  low  price  to  the  tanners,  though 
I  never  heard  that  they  profited  by  the  bargain.  However  fre- 
quently this  name  may  be  repeated  by  the  old  Pharmacopoeias, 
no  druggist  who  regards  his  character  would  venture  to  sell 
the  bark  of  Cinchona  oblongifolia  of  Mutis  as  having  any  value 
in  medicine. 
It  is  true  that  Messrs.  Delondre  and  Bouchardat,  in  their 
recently  published  Quinologie,  have  given  forth  as  their  opinion 
that  the  "red  bark  of  Mutis"  was  none  other  than  what  is 
usually  considered  to  be  the  red  variety  of  the  laneifolia-bark  of 
New  Grenada.  It  is  not  improbable  that  these  might  enter  into 
the  composition  of  the  immense  cuttings  of  coarse  red  barks 
("cortezones  roxos"),  which  it  appears*  that  Mutis  sent 
over  to  Spain,  since  it  was  doubtless  then,  as  now,  too  fre- 
quently the  practice  to  cut  any  tree  that  resembled  that  which 
they  were  seeking,f  and  to  intermingle  the  products ;  but  this 
does  not  disprove  the  testimony,  which  appears  to  me  conclusive, 
that  the  Cinchona  oblongifolia  of  Mutis  (furnishing  the  Quina 
nova,  which  I  have  described  in  a  previous  volumej)  was  that 
on  which  this  botanist  relied  upon  to  compete  with  the  genuine 
red  bark  of  Quito.  He  was  determined  that  New  Grenada 
should  supply  its  red  bark,  and  since  the  country  did  not  furnish 
the  article,  he  fixed  upon  a  sort  which  externally  bore  some  resem- 
blance, and  made  a  powder  of  a  similar  color,  and  to  which  it 
is  but  just  to  Mutis  to  say,  that  he  only  ascribes  anf  «  indirectly 
febrifugal"  power. 
I  think  that  I  have  thus  sufficiently  shown  that  the  old  vener- 
*  See  Pharm.  Journal,  vol.  xii.,  page  340. 
f  "  Se  substituen  en  su  logar  las  cortezas  del  arbol  que  se  encontran  mas 
parecido." — Suplemento  de  la  Quinologia,  page  36. 
%  See  Pharm.  Journal,  vol.  xii.,  page  340. 
f  I  extract  from  the  Suplemento  de  la  Quinologia,  page  109,  the  following  in- 
formation from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Mutis,  which  is  stated  to  be  the  only  botanical  ties-  • 
scription  of  the  barks  of  New  Grenada  which  he  published.    As  the  authority 
of  Dr.  Mutis  has  been  very  prevalent,  it  is  well  to  give  the  quotation  in  its 
original  language  and  form,  that  it  may  lose  nothing  of  its  importance  by  trans- 
