II.—THE "RED-BARK" REGION, ON THE WESTERN SLOPES OF CHIMBORAZO.
The species yielding "red bark," the richest and most important of all the Chinchonæ, is found in the forests on the western slopes of Mount Chimborazo, along the banks of the rivers Chanchan, Chasuan, San Antonio, and their tributaries. So early as 1738 Condamine spoke of "red bark" (cascarilla colorada) as being of superior quality;[48]and Pavon sent home specimens of the "red bark of Huaranda," and named the speciesC. succirubra. Some of these are now in the British Museum; and in the collection of Ruiz and Pavon, in the botanical gardens at Madrid, I found capsules, flowers, and leaves marked "cascarilla colorada de los cerros de San Antonio." In 1857 Dr. Klotzsch, an eminent German botanist, read a paper at Berlin,[49]elaborately describing the "red bark" as a product ofC. succirubra, from a very good specimen of Pavon's in the Berlin Museum. Mr. Howard has also received a specimen from Alausi, and he is inclined to the belief that there are several varieties ofC. succirubra, and one or two allied species, as yet undescribed.[50]Much light was thrown upon the history of this valuable species by Mr. Spruce, when he penetrated into the forests to collect seeds and plants for transmission to India in 1860.
Though little was known of the tree until quite lately, there was never any doubt concerning the value of the bark. In 1779 a Spanish ship from Lima, bound to Cadiz, was captured off Lisbon by the 'Hussar' frigate, and her cargo consisted chiefly of "red bark," part of which was imported into England. In 1785 and 1786 Ruiz states that the collectors began to gather the bark ofC. succirubra, and sell it atGuayaquil, and from that time it continued to be found in the European markets. It contains a larger proportion of alkaloids than any other kind, amounting to as much as from 3 to 4 per cent. of the substance of the bark, and of this a fair share is quinine. Fine samples yield 3.9 per cent., selling at 8s.9d.per lb.; and the quill bark from the smaller branches 3.6 per cent.[51]Mr. Howard has recently procured 8.5 per cent. of alkaloids from a specimen of "red bark." A large supply of plants of this species is flourishing in India and Ceylon, and, from the richness of the species, the comparatively low elevation at which it thrives, and its hardy nature, it may be expected to become a cultivated plant of great value and importance.
In 1857 the export of bark from the port of Guayaquil, the place of shipment for theC. succirubra, amounted to 7006 quintals, valued at 23,353l.[52]In 1849-50 Dr. Weddell gives the amount at 1042 quintals.
III.—THE NEW-GRANADA REGION.
The importance of the chinchona-trees was fully established in the middle of the last century, and, Don Miguel de Santistevan, the director of the mint at Bogota, having addressed a memorial on the bark trade (estanco de cascarilla) to the Viceroy Marquis of Villar in 1753, the attention of the Spanish Government was seriously turned to the subject. When the Viceroy Don Pedro Mesia de la Cerda, Marquis de la Vega de Armijo, went out to Bogota in 1760,[53]he was accompanied by the botanist Don José Celestino Mutis, anative of Cadiz, who was appointed to conduct a botanical survey of New Granada, and especially to investigate the bark of the chinchona-trees.[54]
In 1772 Mutis found these trees in the neighbourhood of Bogota, and described four kinds in 1792, which he calledC. lancifolia,C. cordifolia,C. oblongifolia, andC. ovalifolia, yielding four kinds of barks—anaranjada,amarilla,roja, andblanca, or orange-coloured, yellow, red, and white.[55]He declared theC. lancifoliato be excellent for intermittent fevers, in which he was right, and to be identical with theC. Condamineaof Loxa, in which he was wrong; theC. cordifoliahe recommended for remittent fevers, and the other two for inflammatory diseases. In reality the two last are not chinchonas at all, but belong to the genusLadenbergia, and contain no fever-dispelling alkaloids whatever; while theC. Cordifoliais so poor in alkaloids as to be practically worthless.
While Mutis, and his disciples Caldas and Zea, were prosecuting their researches in New Granada, an expedition under the botanists Ruiz and Pavon was sent to Peru; and an acrimonious paper war sprang up between the rivals, as to the respective merits of the barks of New Granada and Peru. Ruiz declared the New Granada kinds to be inferior to those of Peru, while Mutis contradicted him, and Zea[56]went so far as to maintain that the species found by Ruiz and Pavon in Peru were mere varieties of the four chinchonas of Mutis, growing near Bogota.[57]
TheC. lancifoliaof Mutis is dispersed in wild inaccessible forests, while the other three kinds grow in partly cultivated and inhabited regions, and their barks are therefore much more easy to collect. These worthless barks were, therefore, largely exported from Carthagena and Santa Martha, while the valuableC. lancifoliawas neglected; and the consequence was that the barks of New Granada fell entirely into discredit for many years. In about 1849, however, Dr. Santa Maria of Bogota discovered theC. lancifoliaafresh, producing thequina anaranjada, and it has recently been found in the whole cordillera from Bogota to Popayan, and largely exported between 1849 and 1855, when the supplies began to fail.
Dr. Karsten, a distinguished German botanist, has lately returned from a residence of some years in New Granada, where he thoroughly examined the region ofC. lancifolia. His remarks on the production of alkaloids in chinchona barks are very important. He came to the conclusion that the content of alkaloids was not always the same in the same species of chinchona, and that the soil and relations of climate, on which the nourishment of the plant depends, exercise considerable influence. He also assumes, what is undoubtedly true, that the chinchonæ with the capsule opening from the base and crowned by the calyx, with a corolla of delicate texture and bearded edges, and generally unindented seed-lobes, give febrifugal barks; but his further position that the short oval or elliptic capsules are a sign of a regularly larger content of alkaloids, while long capsules show a small quantity or total absence of quinine and chinchonine, though doubtless correct so far as Dr. Karsten's personal observation extended, will not bear general application. TheC. succirubra, the richest of all the barks in alkaloids, would certainly come under the latter head. Dr. Karsten's observations on the differences in the structure of the false and true barks are also exceedingly valuable.
TheC. lancifoliaof New Granada has been found to contain as much as 2½ per cent. of quinine and from 1 to 2 percent. of chinchonine. The trees are found in forest-regions veiled in fog and rain, and often exposed to frost, where the temperature ranges from freezing-point to 77° Fahr., at heights of 7000 feet and upwards above the level of the sea. They attain a height of 80 feet and 5 feet in diameter, but the average size is 30 or 40 feet high and 3 feet in girth.[58]Seeds of this species, collected by Dr. Karsten, were sent to Java, and there are now several plants raised from these seeds in India.[59]
I find that between 1802 and 1807 the export of New Granada bark from the port of Carthagena was 3,340,000 lbs.; the largest quantity in one year being 48,330 lbs. in 1806. The first arrivals in Spain sold at 5 to 6 dollars a pound, but in 1808 they were worth next to nothing, owing to the damaged state in which the bark arrived.[60]
IV.—THE HUANUCO REGION IN NORTHERN PERU, AND ITS GREY BARKS.
The chinchona-trees, in the forests of the province of Huanuco, in Northern Peru, were discovered by Don Francisco Renquifo in 1776, on the mountain of San Cristoval de Cuchero or Cocheros; and Don Manuel Alcarraz brought the first sample of bark from Huanuco to Lima.
At almost the same time the Spanish government was organizing a botanical expedition to explore the chinchonaforests of Peru; composed of the botanists Don José Pavon, Don Hipolito Ruiz, the Frenchman Dombey, and two artists named Brunete and Galvez. They embarked at Cadiz on November 4th, 1777, and reached Callao April 8th, 1778. Having made a large collection of plants in the neighbourhood of Lima, and despatched them to Spain,[61]they crossed the Andes, explored the forests of Tarma, and then proceeded to Huanuco. They traversed the valley of Chinchao, explored the hill of Cuchero or Cocheros, near Huanuco, and discovered seven species of chinchona-trees,[62]returning to Lima laden with the precious spoils of their expedition. They then sailed for Chile, and, after exploring the greater part of that province, they returned to Lima, and sent off their botanical collections in fifty-three boxes, which were all lost in the shipwreck of the 'San Pedro de Alcantara,' off the coast of Portugal, in 1786. M. Dombey returned to Europe at about the same time.
Ruiz and Pavon then returned to Huanuco, explored the courses of the rivers Pozuzu and Huancabamba, and eventually established themselves at the farm of Macora, near Huanuco, where they resided for two months with Don Francisco Pulgar and Don Juan Tafalla, who, by order of the king, had joined them as pupils and associates in their labours—the first as an artist, the second as a botanist. In August, 1785, a fire broke out in their house, which destroyed all their journals and collections; and they then undertook journeys through the forests of Muña, Pillao, and Chacahuasi, examining new species of chinchonæ.[63]On April 1st, 1788, taking leave of Pulgar and Tafalla, they sailed from Callao, and reached Cadiz in September, when they commenced the publication of their great work the 'Flora Peruviana.'[64]
Tafalla continued his researches in the province of Huanuco, and discovered theC. micranthain 1797, in the cool and shady forests of Monzon and Chicoplaya. Pavon calls him "noster alumnus."
The expeditions and discoveries of the Spanish botanists induced the merchants of Lima to speculate in bark, and brought the grey barks of Huanuco into the European markets.[65]In 1785 Don Juan de Bezares, a Lima merchant, devoted 2000 dollars to the exploration of the forests of Huamalies. He penetrated along the banks of the Monzon to Chicoplaya, passing mountains thickly covered with chinchona-trees, and engaged people to collect bark. Thousands of arrobas were thus obtained of the bark ofC. glandulifera; and having been appointed Governor of Huamalies by the Viceroy Don Teodoro de Croix in 1788, Bezares commenced the construction of a good road down the valley of the Monzon.[66]Up to 1826 the principal supplies of grey bark were derived fromC. nitida, but since that time they are believed to have come chiefly fromC. micrantha.
Science owes much to the labours of Spanish botanists: the Spanish nation has every reason to be proud of her sons who explored the forests of the Andes with such untiring energy and distinguished ability; and the names of Mutis, Ruiz, Pavon, and Tafalla occupy no unimportant place in the history of botanical research. Nor, in this respect, have thenatives of South America been behindhand. Caldas and Zea were worthy successors of Mutis; Franco Davila[67]represents the botanical learning of Peru; while in more modern times the name of the South American Triana is not unworthy to stand side by side with those of the best botanists in Europe.
CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.(From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.')Page 32.
CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.(From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.')Page 32.
After the days of Ruiz and Pavon, our chief authority on the grey barks of Huanuco is Dr. Poeppig, now a professor in Leipsic, who travelled in Chile and Peru between the years 1827 and 1832.[68]He says that, as in New Granada, the grey barks of Huanuco soon fell into discredit in the European markets, owing to the adulterations of small speculators, and that after 1815 the trade almost entirely ceased.[69]In 1830 scarcely 1250 lbs. of bark found their way from Huanuco to Lima.
In the flourishing times of the Huanuco bark trade thecascarilleros, or bark-collectors, entered the forests in parties of ten or more, with supplies of food and tools. They penetrated for several days into the virgin forest until they came to the region of the chinchona-trees, when they built some rude huts and commenced their work. Thecateador, or searcher, then climbed a high tree, and, with the aid of experience and sharp sight, soon discovered themanchasor clumps by their dark colour, and the peculiar reflection of the light from their leaves, easily observable even in the midst of these endless expanses of forest. Thecateador, then, with never-erring instinct, conducted the party for hours through the tangled brushwood, to the chinchona clump, using the wood-knife at every step. From a single clump they often obtained a thousand pounds of bark, which was sent up to be dried beyond the limits of the forest. All depended on the successof this operation, for the bark easily becomes mouldy and loses its colour. Thecascarillerosgot two rials for every twenty-five pounds of green bark stripped, from the speculator, and, as they could easily strip three hundred pounds, they made two dollars a day. The bark cost the speculator about four dollars, and the price at Lima was sixteen to twenty dollars the arroba of twenty-five pounds.[70]
Dr. Poeppig makes some important remarks on the supposed danger of the total extirpation of the chinchona-trees by reckless felling. Condamine and Ulloa believed that this would be the case in the Loxa forests, and Poeppig thinks that their apprehensions were well founded, because there the trees are not felled, but left standing deprived of their bark, in which case they are attacked by rot with extraordinary rapidity in tropical forests, hosts of insects penetrate to the stem, and the healthy roots become infected. But it is only necessary to observe the precaution of hewing the stem as near as possible to the root, in order to be sure of its after-growth. After six years, near Cuchero, the young stems may already be felled again; but, at higher altitudes, where the most effective chinchonas are found, it requires twenty years.[71]
TheC. micranthaabounds in the province of Huanuco, and the bark is known asCascarilla provinciana. It yields 2.7 per cent. of chinchonine, and is much sought after for the Russian market.
TheC. nitidais a lofty tree growing in the higher regions of Huanuco, and is known by the natives asquina cana legitima(genuine grey bark). It grows at a greater height than the former species, and yields 2.2 per cent. of chinchonine.
TheC. Peruviana, so named by Mr. Howard, is theCascarilla de pata de gallinazoof the natives. It grows in the forests at a lower elevation thanC. nitida, and yields 3 per cent. of chinchonine and chinchonidine, consequently indicating aconsiderable amount of febrifugal power. Quinine has also been found in samples of grey bark.[72]
The name ofgreybark refers to the striking effect of the overspreading thallus of variousGraphideæ, forming groups, and indicating that the tree has grown in an open situation, exposed to rain and sunshine. A large supply of all the best kinds of grey bark is now growing in India.[73]
V.—THE CALISAYA REGION IN BOLIVIA AND SOUTHERN PERU.
The chinchona region of Bolivia and Southern Peru, although one of the most important, was the last to contribute supplies of bark to the European markets. The trees first became known through the investigations of the German botanist Thaddæus Haenke, and a Spanish naval officer named Rubin de Celis, who drew the attention of the inhabitants to the valuable forests on the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes in 1776, though the unfortunate French naturalist Joseph de Jussieu had previously explored some portions of those forests.[74]But it was not until 1820, when quinine was first discovered as the febrifugal principle of bark, that theChinchona Calisaya[75]was recognised as containing more of that alkaloid than any other species.
After 1820 the demand forcalisayabark increased enormously; great numbers ofcascarilleros, or bark-collectors, entered the forests, and in a short time scarcely a treeremained in the vicinity of the inhabited places; and the bark was exported in such quantities that the price fell very much.[76]It was not, however, until 1830 that the Bolivian Government interfered in the bark trade. It was then considered necessary by General Santa Cruz's administration to check the drain of this precious source of wealth by limiting the quantity of bark to be cut or exported; and in November, 1834, the Bolivian Congress decreed a law on the subject, which, however, never took effect. Finally, the cutting was prohibited for five years, but before the expiration of that period the decree was abrogated, and an export duty of twelve dollars to twenty dollars the quintal, or cwt., was imposed.
In 1844 the Bolivian Congress authorized the President, General Ballivian, to negotiate for the establishment of a national bank of bark, with the requisite capital, to export all the quinquina bark produced in the country. This Bolivian legislation on the chinchona bark, which is considered, with justice, the most important product of their country, is very curious, and sufficiently demonstrates the futility of attempting a system of protection and monopoly. Instead of taking measures to prevent the reckless destruction of the trees, to establish extensive nurseries for young plants, and thus ensure a constant and sufficient supply of bark, these Bolivians have meddled with the trade, attempted to regulate European prices by the most barbarous legislation, and allowed the forests to be denuded of chinchona-trees. In 1845 the bark monopoly was given to Messrs. Jorge Tesanos Pinto and Co., for five years, for the sum of 119,000 dollars, during which time not more than 4000 quintals of bark were to be exported annually. This company gave such iniquitously low prices to thecascarillerosfor their bark, that a clamour was raisedagainst it, and the President, General Belzu, put an end to its existence in March 1849.
Free trade, with a duty of twenty dollars the quintal, was then established during one year; but in 1850 exclusive privileges were again granted to Messrs. Aramayo Brothers and Co., who were to pay the Government 142,000 dollars a year for the right of exporting 7000 quintals of bark annually, to be purchased of thecascarilleros, thetablaor trunk bark at sixty dollars the quintal, and thecanutoor quill bark at thirty to thirty-six dollars the quintal. The Pinto company had only paid eighteen to twenty-two dollars the quintal fortabla, and eight to ten dollars forcanutobark. The favourable conditions thus offered tocascarillerosinduced so great a number of persons to undertake the business, that at the end of the first year more than 20,000 quintals of bark arrived at La Paz—that is to say, more than twice as much as the company had agreed for, and more than the Pinto company had exported in five years. The Government then issued a decree to prevent the smuggling of bark, and another that no bark should be cut except for the company: but these measures caused much discontent, and in 1851 the Congress voted that the Executive had exceeded its powers in making these arrangements with the Aramayo company, and declared them to be null and void. The Aramayo company purchased 14,000 quintals of the bark, and agreed to take the same quantity during the two following years, paying only a third of the price in ready money; but a new company, formed under the name of Pedro Blaye and Co., engaged to purchase all the bark that was for sale, both at La Paz and Cochabamba, for ready money. It was evident that one or the other of these companies must break, and finally that of Blaye fell. The Government then determined to export the bark which remained in store on its own account, paying the same price as had been agreed on by the company.
These two companies lasted for two years, during which time the Bolivian forests yielded 3,000,000 lbs. of bark. Such was the result of the high prices which followed the fall of the Pinto monopoly; but it was the rich contractors, and not the poor bark-collectors, who derived benefit from the change.[77]
In 1851 Government prohibited the cutting of bark entirely, from the 1st of January, 1852, to the 1st of January, 1854.[78]In 1858 a decree was issued to regulate the transition of the system of monopoly to that of free-trade in bark, which caused an improvement in the prices in European markets; and in November, 1859, Dr. Linares, then President of Bolivia, declared the right to cut bark in the forests to be free, and reduced the duty 25 per cent. on the current prices, to be fixed at the beginning of each year.[79]This is the law which now regulates the bark trade in Bolivia, and, after a course of short-sighted meddling legislation, extending over twenty years, in 1850 it still brought 142,000 dollars annually into the public treasury, being a fifteenth part of the whole revenue of the Republic.
For exportation the bark is wrapped in fresh bullock-hides, having been previously sewn up in thick cotton bags containing 155 lbs. each. These hide packages are calledserons, a mule-load being 285 lbs., and the transport to the coast costing about ten dollars for each mule-load.
It is to the persevering energy and great talent of that distinguished French botanist Dr. Weddell that we owe our knowledge of the chinchona regions of Bolivia and Southern Peru, and especially of the inestimable quinine-yielding species which he identified as theC. Calisaya. Dr. Weddell accompanied the scientific expedition of the Count de Castelnau, which was sent out by Louis Philippe to South America, and, after crossing the vast empire of Brazil, entered Bolivia by the country of the Chiquitos in August, 1845. It was Dr. Weddell's chief object to examine the chinchona region of this country, and his first step was to proceed to Tarija, to ascertain the extreme southern limit of the chinchona-trees, which he discovered in 19° S. lat. He named the speciesC. Australis. Dr. Weddell then commenced a thorough exploration of the Bolivian chinchona forests, making his way over the most difficult country, from Cochabamba, through Ayopaya, Enquisivi, and theyungus[80]of La Paz; where the species of chinchonæ continued to multiply under his eye. In Enquisivi he first met with and studied theC. Calisaya, which he named and described, collecting much information respecting the trade, and the methods of collecting bark. In 1847 he entered the province of Capaulican, descending the river Tipuani, where he was attacked by fever, and ascending the Mapiri. At Apollobamba, the centre of the most ancient bark-collecting district, he found that the surrounding forests were quite cleared of chinchona-trees, and that it was necessary to seek for them at a distance of ten or twelve days' journey from any inhabited place. In June 1847 Dr. Weddell entered the Peruvian province of Caravaya, examined the chinchona forests of the valleys of Sandia (San Juan del Oro) and Tambopata, and concluded his investigations by a visit to the lovely ravine of Santa Anna, near Cuzco.
Dr. Weddell was accompanied in his visit to the valleys of Santa Anna by M. Delondre, a manufacturer of quinine at Havre, who, after contemplating the project of paying a personal visit to the chinchona forests for twenty years, had at length set out, landed at Islay in July, 1847, and proceededby way of Arequipa to Cuzco. M. Delondre appears to have employed a contractor to supply him with bark, who failed in his engagements, and of whom the French quinine manufacturer bitterly complains as a second Dousterswivel.[81]MM. Weddell and Delondre finally left the chinchona forests in September, 1847, and set out for the coast of Peru. Dr. Weddell's valuable monograph on the chinchona genus, 'Histoire naturelle des Quinquinas,' the most important work that has yet appeared on the subject, was published at Paris in 1849.
In 1851 Dr. Weddell undertook a second voyage to South America, and in 1852 he entered the Bolivian chinchona region of Tipuani by way of Sorata. In descending the eastern slopes of the Andes he describes the vegetation as taking new forms at every mile of the descent. The undergrowth was formed ofMelastomaceæwith violet-coloured flowers (Chætogastra), myrtles,Gaultherias, andAndromedas; lower down there were many superb species ofThibaudias; and, where the great forests succeed to the smaller growth of the more elevated region, the predominant trees wereEscallonias, arborescentEupatorias,Bocconias, and a fruit-bearingPapilionaceawith a scarlet corolla. He encountered the first forest chinchona-trees at an elevation of 7138 feet, being theC. ovata var. α vulgaris. Descending still, he came to paccay-trees (Mimosa Inga) in flower, and met with the first plant of the shrubby variety ofC. Calisaya, on an open grassy ridge orpajonal, at an elevation of 4800 feet.
Dr. Weddell descended the river Tipuani to Guanay, a mission of Lecos Indians, and ascended the Coroico in a canoe made of the wood of a species ofBombax. The forests bordering on the river Coroico abounded in many species of palms, chieflyMaximilianasandIriarteas, the latter a singular kind with a trunk supported on long aërial roots. There werealso many trees ofC. micranthaon the banks of the Coroico, a species of chinchona, the peculiarity of which is its fondness for the bottoms of valleys and banks of rivers, while most of the others prefer elevated ridges or slopes of the mountains. With it were growing trees of the beautifulCascarilla magnifolia, an allied genus with deliciously fragrant flowers.
Thecascarillerosof Bolivia lead a hard and dangerous life. They only value theC. Calisaya, the other species being for themcarhua-carhua, a name given to all the inferior kinds. Those who carry the bark on their shoulders from the interior of the forests receive fifteen dollars for every quintal, and they also have to carry all their provisions and covering for the night. If by any accident they are lost, or their provisions are destroyed, they die of hunger. Dr. Weddell, on one occasion, while ascending the Coroico, landed with the intention of passing the night on a beach well shaded by trees. Here he found the hut of acascarillero, and near it a man stretched out on the ground in the agonies of death. He was nearly naked, and covered with myriads of insects, whose stings had hastened his end. His face was so swollen as to be wholly unrecognisable, and his limbs were in a frightful state. On the leaves which formed the roof of the hut were the remains of this unfortunate man's clothes, a straw hat and some rags, with a knife, and an earthen pot containing the remains of his last meal, a little maize, and two or threechuñus. Such is the end to which their hazardous occupation exposes the bark-collectors—death in the midst of the forests, far from all friends—a death without help, and without consolation.
Dr. Weddell returned to La Paz by ascending the Coroico, and the results of his second visit to the chinchona forests appeared in an entertaining book of travels.[82]To this ablebotanist and intrepid explorer science is indebted, to no small extent, for the present state of our knowledge of the chinchona genus.
TheC. Calisayaspecies has been divided by Dr. Weddell into two varieties, namely, averaand βJosephiana. The former, when growing under favourable circumstances, is a tall tree, often larger round than twice a man's girth, with its leafy head rising above all the other trees of the forest. The leaves are oblong or lanceolate-obovate, pitted in the axils of the veins, with a shining green surface, and reddish veins. The flowers, which hang in large panicles, are a rosy-white colour, with laciniæ rose-colour, and bordered by marginal white hairs. The capsule is smooth, and about twice as long as broad. This tree grows on declivities, and steep rugged places of the mountains, from 4900 to 5900 feet above the sea, in the forests of Enquisivi, Capaulican, Apollobamba, and Larecaja in Bolivia, and of Caravaya in Peru. The trunk may be known by the periderm of the bark, sometimes of a greyish-white, sometimes brown or blackish, being always marked by longitudinal ridges or cracks, a characteristic remarked of no other tree of these forests, excepting one or two of the same family. The taste is strongly bitter, which is apparent directly the tip of the tongue touches it, and, when the exterior receives a cut, a yellow gummy resinous matter exudes from it. The bark comes off with great ease, like peeling a mushroom, while, in the inferior kinds, and above all in the false chinchonas, it strips transversely, and with much greater difficulty. A good tree yields 150 to 175 pounds of dried bark.
The other variety ofC. Calisaya, calledychu cascarilla, orcascarilla del pajonal, by the natives, was namedJosephianaby Dr. Weddell after the unfortunate French botanist Joseph de Jussieu. It is a shrub, not attaining a greater height than six and a half to ten feet, and growing on open grassy slopes, atmuch higher elevations than the treeCalisaya. There is another tree variety with a somewhat darker leaf, which Dr. Weddell classed as a distinct species, and calledC. Bolivianain 1849, but which he now considers to be a mere variety ofC. Calisaya. The other good kinds in the forests of Bolivia and Caravaya areC. micrantha, and two varieties ofC. ovata.
Dr. Weddell brought seeds ofC. Calisayato Paris, which were raised in the Jardin des Plantes in 1848, and others in the garden of the Horticultural Society in London, where one of the plants flowered.[83]Many of these plants were given away, and some of them were sent by the Dutch Government to Java.
Plants ofC. Calisayaare now flourishing in India. The yield of quinine for the best kinds ofcalisayabark is 3.8 per cent., that for theJosephianavariety 3.29.[84]
Arica and Islay are the ports for the shipment ofcalisayabark; and in 1859 the quantity and value exported were:—
FromArica1926quintals,worth£17,334"Islay1365""12,383329129,717
Jan. 1st to Nov. 30th, 1860, Arica $160,260 = £35,000 (about).1860, Islay, 1077 quintals.
Rapid destruction of chinchona-trees in South America—Importance of their introduction into other countries—M. Hasskarl's mission—Chinchona plantations in Java.
Rapid destruction of chinchona-trees in South America—Importance of their introduction into other countries—M. Hasskarl's mission—Chinchona plantations in Java.
Thecollection of bark in the South American forests was conducted from the first with reckless extravagance; no attempt worthy the name has ever been made either with a view to the conservancy or cultivation of the chinchona-trees; and both the complete abandonment of the forests to the mercy of every speculator, as in Peru, Ecuador, and New Granada, and the barbarous meddling legislation of Bolivia, have led to equally destructive results. The bark-collector enters the forest and destroys the first clump of chinchona-trees he finds, without a thought of any measure to preserve the continuance of a supply of bark. Thus, in Apollobamba, where the trees once grew thickly round the village, no full-grown one is now to be found within eight or ten days' journey:[85]and so utterly improvident are the collectors that, in the forests of Cochabamba, they bark the tree without felling, and thus ensure its death; or, if they cut it down, they actually neglect to take off the bark on the side touching the ground, to save themselves the trouble of turning the trunk over.[86]
A century ago Condamine[87]raised a warning voice against the destruction that was going on in the forests of Loxa. Ulloa[88]advised the Government to check it by legislation; soon afterwards Humboldt reported that 25,000 chinchona-trees were destroyed every year, and Ruiz[89]protested against the custom of barking the trees, and leaving them to be destroyed by rot. But nothing was ever done in the way of conservancy, either by the Government, or by private speculators whose subsistence depended on a continued supply of bark. Dr. Weddell, alluding to this recklessness as regardsC. Calisaya, observes that "the forests of Bolivia, rich as they are, cannot long resist the continued attacks to which they have been recently exposed. He who, in Europe, sees these enormous and ever-increasing masses of bark arrive, may perhaps believe that they will continue to do so; but he who sees the chinchona-trees in their native forests, and knows the real truth, is obliged to think otherwise."
There is, however, no danger of the actual extirpation of the trees unless the plan is adopted of leaving them standing, and stripped of their bark, as in the Loxa forests. Poeppig says that, in these cases, the trees in the tropical forests are attacked by rot with extraordinary rapidity; hosts of insects penetrate the stem to complete the work of destruction, and the healthy root becomes infected. Thus the valuable species calledC. Uritusingahas really been almost exterminated.
But where the trees are felled it is only necessary to observe the precaution of hewing the stem as near as possible to the root, in order to be sure of its after-growth.[90]Under these circumstances, after six years the young trees are ready to be felled again in the milder regions, and after twenty years in cold and exposed localities. From the base of the stems, when not barked, a number of shoots spring out between bark and wood; and Dr. Karsten says that, though an interval of rest of twelve or fifteen years must be given to the forests where the chinchona-trees have thus been felled, this only promotes further investigation in the endlessuntrodden forests, while, in the mean time, the younger generation is growing up in those which have already been exhausted.[91]
The danger, therefore, is not in the actual annihilation of the chinchona-trees in South America, but lest, with the increasing demand, there should be long intervals of time during which the supply would cease, owing to the forests being exhausted, and requiring periods of rest. In many districts this is already the case. The bark which comes from Loxa is in the minutest quills, and in the forests of Caravaya, after an interval of rest of several years, the root-shoots had scarcely grown to a sufficient size to yield anything but quill bark. Then again the supplies of bark from South America are not nearly sufficient to meet the demand, and the price is kept so high as to place this inestimable remedy beyond the means of millions of natives of fever-visited regions. For these reasons the incalculable importance of introducing the chinchona-plant into other countries adapted for its growth, and thus escaping from entire dependence on the South American forests, has long occupied the attention of scientific men in Europe.
In 1839 Dr. Royle, in his 'Illustrations of Himalayan Botany,'[92]recommended the introduction of the chinchona-plants into India, pointing out the Neilgherry and Silhet hills as suitable sites for the experiment, and Lord William Bentinck took some interest in the project. M. Fée had previously recommended the introduction of these plants into the French colonies;[93]and in 1849 both Dr. Weddell[94]and M. Delondre[95]strongly urged the adoption of this measure.The former declared that posterity would bless those who should carry this idea into execution.[96]
The Dutch, who possess in the island of Java a range of forest-covered mountains admirably adapted for chinchona cultivation, were, however, the first to take active steps for its introduction into the Eastern Hemisphere; and their praiseworthy exertions deserve, what they lay claim to with justice, the approbation of the whole civilized world. The experiment in Java, however, has only been tried with a very limited number of valuable species of chinchonæ, and has met with very limited success, owing to the introduction of worthless kinds, and to mistakes in the cultivation, committed during the first few years.
For the last thirty years Dutch scientific men, among whom the name of the botanist Blume may be mentioned, had urged their Government to undertake the introduction of chinchona-plants into Java. But it was not until the year 1852 that M. Pahud, the Dutch Minister of the Colonies, was authorized to employ an agent to collect plants and seeds of valuable species in Peru, and to convey them to Java. He selected, for this important mission, M. Justus Charles Hasskarl, a botanist who had for some time superintended the gardens in Java, but who was a stranger to South America—ignorant of the country, the people, and the languages—unacquainted with the forests where the chinchona-trees are found, and who had never seen them growing in their natural state. He sailed for Peru in December, 1852, with orders not to confine himself to theCalisayaplant, but to collect plants and seeds of as many different species as possible. His original orderswere to proceed from Guayaquil to the chinchona-forests of Loxa in the first instance; but he changed his plan, and, landing at Lima, crossed the cordilleras in May, 1853.
It would be difficult, in making a chance journey from the coast to the forests of the Eastern Andes, to hit upon a part where valuable species of chinchona-trees are not known to exist. There are such spaces—forest tracts—intervening between the more favoured regions, where only species of little value are found, such asC. pubescens,C. scrobiculata, &c.; and on one of these, between the region of grey barks in Huanuco and that ofC. Calisayain Caravaya, M. Hasskarl, through being unacquainted with the localities, was so unfortunate as to stumble. He crossed the Andes by the road from Lima to Tarma, and descended the eastern slopes into the montañas of Vitoc, Uchubamba, and Monobamba; returning thence by Xauxa into the loftier region of the Andes. Near Uchubamba he saw trees which he believed to beC. Calisaya; but that species is never found to the north of the province of Caravaya. He however collected a quantity of seeds of this imaginaryC. Calisaya, and four packets of a species which he calledC. ovata, with smaller quantities ofC. pubescensandC. amygdalifolia.
The species called by M. HasskarlC. ovatanow forms the bulk of the chinchona-plantations in Java. He found it on dry sunny hills, without much shelter from the sun, in a very sandy micaceous soil, at an elevation of 5500 to 6000 feet above the sea. It is sometimes a mere shrub, but occasionally rises to fifteen or twenty-five feet, with elegant pink flowers and reddish fruit. The native name iscascarilla crespilla chica; and as thecrespilla grandeis theC. ovataof Weddell, it is probable that M. Hasskarl was thus led into the mistake of calling his new speciesC. ovata. The leaves are smooth above, with a felt-like pubescence on the under surface, and the hairy capsules are probably an indication of theworthlessness of the species.[97]In fact, no good kinds are found in this part of the country, and all the seeds sent home by M. Hasskarl were equally valueless. He collected specimens ofC. lanceolataof Pavon, at a place called "Escalera de San Rafael," on the road between Uchubamba and Xauxa.[98]
From Xauxa M. Hasskarl went to Cuzco, and thence in September to Sandia in the province of Caravaya; but finding that the seeds of chinchona-trees are ripe in August, and that he had arrived too late, he returned to Lima, and finally took up his abode at Arequipa until the following year. In March, 1854, he again set out, crossed the Andes to Puno, and, after wandering over part of Bolivia, at length reached the little village of Sina in Caravaya, near the frontier between Peru and Bolivia, in April. He had assumed the feigned name of José Carlos Müller, and had printed it on his cards, one of which he presented to the governor of Sina, Don Juan de la Cruz Gironda, requesting him to procure a supply of chinchona-plants for him. Gironda refused, but introduced the stranger to a Bolivian named Clemente Henriquez, a clever and intelligent, but dishonest and unscrupulous man. Henriquez agreed to procure 400 plants ofC. Calisayafor a certain sum, part of which was to be paid down, and the remainder on delivery of the plants. M. Hasskarl then went on to the village of Sandia, where he took up his abode, without entering the chinchona forests, and waited there until the plants should arrive. Meanwhile Henriquez employed an Indian to collect the stipulated number of plants, round a place called Ychu-corpa,[99]on the frontier of Bolivia; and when they were brought to him he went to Sandia, delivered them to M. Hasskarl, and received his money. An outcry was afterwards raised against Henriquez, by the people inhabiting villages bordering on the chinchona forests, who considered that their interests would be injured by the exportation of the plants: they declared they would cut his feet off if they caught him, and he has ever since been obliged to live at Pelechuco, in Bolivia.[100]This feeling has rendered any future operations of a like nature exceedingly difficult.
M. Hasskarl left Sandia with these plants in June, 1854, but they were not placed in Wardian cases at the port of Islay until August, and on the 27th of that month he finally left the coast of Peru in a sailing vessel, and shaped his course direct for Java.[101]He arrived at Batavia with twenty Wardian cases on December 13th, but all his plants have since died except two.[102]On his arrival M. Hasskarl was intrusted with the cultivation of chinchona-plants in Java, with the rank of Assistant-Resident, and was made a Knight of the Netherlands Lion, and Commander of the Order of the Oaken Crown.[103]
Besides the plants brought by M. Hasskarl, a plant ofC. Calisaya, raised in Paris from seeds sent home by Dr. Weddell, had arrived in Java; as well as plants raised from seeds previously sent from Peru, and seeds ofC. lancifoliasent by Dr. Karsten from New Granada, through the Governor of Curaçoa; and thus the experimental chinchona cultivation in Java was commenced.
Although through various circumstances the mission to South America was not very successful, yet M. Hasskarl deserves the greatest credit for the zeal and determination displayed by him in his journeys, during which he was surrounded by no ordinary amount of difficulties and dangers.He certainly proved himself to be a most indefatigable and courageous traveller.
M. Hasskarl, and his associate M. Teysmann, selected the site for the first chinchona plantation, at a place called Tjibodas, thirty miles south of Batavia, on the northern slope of the volcanic range which traverses Java from east to west, and 4400 feet above the sea. Ground was also prepared at Tjipannas, half a mile above Tjibodas, and 4700 feet above the sea. These sites were covered with rasamala-trees of immense size (Liquidambar Altingia,[104]Blume), which had to be felled. The superintendents, deceived by the sight of such large trees, imagined that the soil was deep and good, but in reality it was not more than six inches deep, and underneath there was a formation completely impenetrable to roots, calledtjadas, composed of sand and small stones of trachytic origin, strongly cemented together by crater slime, the whole being as hard as rock. Not one of the huge rasamala-trees in reality pierced thistjadaswith their roots, but ran along its surface horizontally for hundreds of feet. In these localities the chinchona-plants continued to languish during the year 1855, and in the end of that year the experiment presented a most hopeless appearance.
The causes of this failure are sufficiently evident. After the felling of the rasamala-trees, the young chinchona-plants were exposed to the full force of a burning sun, without any shade whatever, in an extraordinarily thin soil upon a rocky bank impenetrable to roots. The dead and rotted roots of the rasamala-trees were allowed to remain, developing fungi which attacked the chinchona-roots; and the sites themselves were in much too low and warm a climate. In consequence of the combined effects of these adverse influences, there wereonly 300 chinchona-plants in Java, in a sickly unpromising condition, after the lapse of the first eighteen months.
In December, 1855, Dr. Franz Junghuhn came to Java with 139 chinchona-plants, raised from seeds in Holland. They were delivered over to M. Hasskarl, and in six months seventy-six of them were dead. In June, 1856, M. Pahud, who had been Minister of the Colonies, and was then Governor-General of Netherlands India, relieved M. Hasskarl of his duties, and gave the entire charge of the chinchona experiment to Dr. Junghuhn, an experienced scientific botanist. Dr. J. E. de Vry, a chemist of some eminence, was also sent to Java, charged with the special duty of applying chemical tests to the barks of the chinchona-plants, to ascertain their intrinsic value.
When Dr. Junghuhn took charge the prospects of the experiment were very far from promising, and he has displayed an amount of intelligent perseverance, combined with much practical knowledge, which is deserving of all praise. He found the 139 chinchona-plants which he himself brought out reduced to sixty-three; the seeds ofC. lancifoliarepresented by three sickly plants; the collection of plants ofC. Calisayabrought by M. Hasskarl from Peru, also reduced to three; two plants ofC. Calisayaraised from seeds sent home by Dr. Weddell; and the remainder, consisting of the worthless species collected by M. Hasskarl in Uchubamba, making a total of only 300 plants.
In 1856 a new system was introduced, money was lavishly expended, an efficient establishment was formed, and a great effort was commenced to secure the successful cultivation of the chinchona-plants. The superintendent receives 1350l.a year, the chemist 1100l.a year, and under them there are eight Dutch overseers; the total amount paid in salaries being 3256l.a year.[105]It was ordered that, until the cultivation is considered as quite successful, it should remain under the management of scientific men, but that finally it should be handed over to the ordinary direction of the chiefs of the provincial government, under the Director of Cultures; and a memorandum of instructions, consisting of eighteen articles, was drawn up for the guidance of Dr. Junghuhn and his subordinates.
Finding the chinchona-plants in so deplorable a condition, one of Dr. Junghuhn's first measures was to transplant them from Tjibodas to a more suitable site on the Malawar mountains, a very delicate and hazardous operation, which was, however, successfully performed: in 1857 plants both ofC. Calisayaand of the worthless species blossomed, and in 1858 bore fruit. Dr. Junghuhn found that the latter could not be theC. ovataas named by M. Hasskarl; but he was himself equally mistaken in naming itC. Lucumæfolia, from a fancied resemblance to that species of Pavon.[106]The great mistake of the Dutch has been in propagating this worthless species, and spending vast sums of money on its cultivation, tempted by finding that its nature was hardy, and that it required less care than the delicateC. Calisaya.
In 1858 several of the plants sickened from the attacks of destructive insects (BostrichusorDermestes), not larger than the head of a pin, which pierced horizontally into the bark and wood of the stem and branches, where they laid their eggs and died. Dr. Junghuhn conjectures that they were imported from Peru; as they are not natives of the Java forests, and I found these boring insects in the wood of chinchona-trees in the forests of Caravaya. Twenty-nine trees were thus attacked in Java, and died.
Dr. Junghuhn established his new plantations on the slopes of the Malawar mountains, where he has found that theC. Calisayais much more sensitive than his so-calledC. Lucumæfolia; and that very slight differences in temperature, in elevation, in light, in shade, and in moisture, exercise a very evident influence on the former, while the latter remain quite unaffected by them. He considers that the best conditions for the growth ofC. Calisayaon the Malawar mountains (between latitude 7° and 8° S.) are good loose forest soil and moderate shade, at an elevation from 5000 to 5700 feet above the sea. TheC. Calisayas, when they receive light only on their crowns, and are surrounded by the dark wood, have a rapidly rising, slender, tall stem, devoid of side branches; whilst, when they stand on clear open spots, they grow much stronger in width and thickness, but are shorter, and have numerous side branches.
The following is Dr. Junghuhn's method of cultivation. Pots, made of bamboo-joints, are loosely filled with finely-sifted earth, composed of one-fourth part of black volcanic sand (felspar, hornblende, and magnet iron) mixed with brown forest soil. The pots are then placed in the interior of the forests, on beds of heaped-up earth laid out in the form of terraces, on the declivities of the mountains. A roof of dry grass, supported by stakes, and high enough to admit a side light, protects the pots from the falling rain-drops. These seed-beds are from 200 to 500 feet long, and extend in parallel lines between the trees, like the steps of an amphitheatre. Each pot receives only one seed, and the earth is kept constantly moist by watering twice daily with the squeeze of a sponge.[107]
The pots remain standing on the seed-beds until the plants are about half a foot high, which takes about eight months; and during this time they are turned every five or eight days,in order to prevent the crooked growth of the plants, which always turn to the side where most light falls on the beds. For the purpose of planting out, a few principal broad roads are made along the mountain ridge through the wood, united at intervals by cross footpaths, twenty-five feet asunder. At the side of these footpaths, and twenty-five feet from each other, wide trenches are dug, and filled up with cleansed earth, so as to make slightly raised mounds, with gutters to carry off the rain-water. The young plants are placed in the loose earth on these mounds, and four strong stakes, driven into the ground round them, are fastened together four or five feet above their heads. This protects them from falling boughs, drip, and wild animals, for some years. Thus thousands of paths have been cut in the forests, and planted with chinchona-trees, which are growing well. There are now nine nurseries in Java—Tjibodas on Mount Gêdé; Tjiniruan on the south-west slope, and Tjiborum on the southern slope of Mount Malawar; Genting; Reong Gunung; Kawah Tjirvidei in the Kendeng mountains; one on Mount Patna; and two others.
Dr. Junghuhn, in adopting the above method of cultivation, and in altering M. Hasskarl's arrangements, has run into an opposite extreme. His system of planting the young chinchonas in the forests under dense shade[108]is most erroneous; and the way in which the seeds are treated quite accounts for the small number which germinate.
On the 31st of December, 1860, the number of chinchona-plants in Java was as follows:—