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PERUVIAN  CINCHONAS. 
PERUVIAN  CINCHONAS. 
We  have  been  favored  with  the  following  letter  for  publication 
relating  to  the  Cinchona  : — 
"  I  was  glad  to  see  from  your  letter  that  the  seeds  had  turned 
out  a  success.  I  was  in  Peru  during  some  three  years,  in  daily 
contact  with  the  Cascarilleros  (as  the  quinine  bark  collectors  are 
called)  of  both  Peru  and  Bolivia.  I  always  found  the  Casca- 
rilleros ready  to  assist  in  anything  I  wanted.  I  went  with  them 
on  their  bark-hunting  expedition  far  into  the  interior,  and  made 
a  collection  of  plants,  leaves,  etc.,  to  bring  home  to  Europe, 
which,  however,  were  all  lost  in  the  siege  at  La  Paz,  in  1863, 
when  our  house  was  completely  sacked,  being  close  to  the  part 
of  the  town  entered  by  the  besiegers.  I  only  saved  the  bag  of 
seeds,  which,  luckily,  was  in  my  portmanteau  with  clothes,  and 
which,  fortunately,  are  from  the  district  considered  as  the  finest 
Cascarilla  of  Bolivia ;  the  bark  from  that  part  (the  head-waters 
of  the  river  Beni)  fetching  a  far  higher  price  than  any  other 
in  South  America,  at  least  so  the  best  China  bark  merchants  as- 
sure me. 
"  As  I  had  not  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  trees  myself,  for 
there  are  various  species  of  this  tree  growing  everywhere,  I 
trusted  to  some  Indian  cascarilleros  whom  I  knew,  and  think 
they  did  not  deceive  me  when  they  assured  me  that  this  was  the 
finest  sort ;  the  seeds  were  collected  in  1861,  in  the  forests  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river  Massiri,  in  the  province  of  Laricaja,  lat. 
141°  g.?  long.  70|°  W.  The  Massiri  is  a  tributary  of  the  Beni, 
a  principal  branch  of  the  Madera  arm  of  the  Amazon,  and  in- 
habited by  the  Takana  Indians,  from  whom  I  received  much 
kindness.  They  live  exclusively  along  the  river,  their  principal 
food  being  fish  and  monkeys,  though  some  of  the  nearer  ones,  as 
at  Huanay,  have  maize  and  sugar-cane.  Cotton,  both  white  and 
nankeen,  grows  everywhere  in  abundance,  wild,  as  a  perennial 
shrub  or  tree  ;  quality  excellent,  and  nearly  equal  to  Sea  Island, 
as  I  have  had  them  tested  in  Manchester.  They  are  very  clever 
in  making  woven  articles  of  this  cotton. 
"  The  bark  tree  is  not  found  along  the  rivers,  but  at  from 
1000  to  4000  feet  higher  up,  either  in  single  trees  or  small 
