Red  Bark  of  the  Nilgiris. 
/Am,  Jour.  Pharni. 
t    ■  Feb.,  1885. 
THE  DISPUTED  IDENTITY  OF  THE  KED  BAEK  OF  THE 
NILGIRIS. 
By  W.  T.  Thistleton  Dyer,  C.M.G.,  F.R.S. 
Assistant  Director,  Royal  Gardens,  Kew. 
I  cannot  but  regret  that  Mr.  Cross  has  reopened  in  the  pages  of  the 
Pharmaceutical  Journal/'  a  question  which  I  imagine  most  persons 
interested  in  the  subject  had  hoped  had  been  finally  laid  to  rest.^ 
In  1880,  Mr.  Cross  was  employed  by  the  India  Office  to  take  out  to 
the  Nilgiris  the  plants  of  Santa  Fe  and  Carthagena  barks  which  had 
been  under  his  charge  in  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew.  After  successfully 
accomplishing  this  difficult  task,  he  remained  in  India  for  some  time 
in  charge  of  the  plants. 
Early  in  1882,  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Clements  Markham, 
inclosing  one  from  Mr.  Cross,  dated  Government  Gardens,  Ootaca- 
mund,  21st  January,  1882.    From  this  I  extract  the  following  passage : 
"  After  the  fullest  and  most  careful  examination  of  Neddivattum  planta- 
tion, I  found  that  the  most  stupendous  mistake  that  has  ever  occurred  in 
the  history  of  planters  has  been  committed.  The  whole  plantation,  instead 
of  consisting,  as  was  believed,  of  pure  succirubra,  does  not  contain  more 
than  5  per  cent,  of  that  species,  the  remaining  95  per  cent,  being  of  the 
gray  bark  or  Huanuco  sort,  which,  botanically,  is  either  the  C.  miorantha 
or  C.  peruviana.^' 
Mr.  Cross  subsequently  wrote  to  Kew,  March  21, 1882,  to  much  the 
same  effect. 
The  Government  of  Madras  regarded  Mr.  Cross's  statements  as  of 
sufficient  importance  to  deserve  careful  investigation.  Surgeon-Major 
Bidie,  M.B.,  Superintendent  of  the  Government  Central  Museum, 
Madras,  was  accordingly  instructed  to  report  upon  them  and  to  make 
a  careful  collection  of  specimens  of  every  kind  of  cinchona  grown  at 
Naduvattum  for  transmission  to  Kew. 
Surgeon-Major  Bidie  met  Mr.  Cross  at  the  plantations,  and  with 
regard  to  the  question  raised  he  reported  to  his  Government,  March  3, 
1882: 
"  With  reference  to  the  assertion  that  the  tree  called  by  us  Cinchona  suc- 
cirubra is  a  gray  bark,  C.  micrantha,  my  first  act  was  to  show  Mr.  Cross 
oxact  reproductions  of  Fitch's  plates  of  the  two  species^  but  without  any 
1  See  paper  by  Rob.  Cross'  on  page  96. 
^  From  Howard's  "  Nueva  Quinologia  of  Pavon." 
i 
