Flora Medica

CINCHONACEJE.and grasping disposition of the first Brazilian speculators are the subjectof ridicule at Mayobamba ; and in Yurimagnas many hundredweightof bad bark still lies rotting, to the ruin of the sub-prefect ofthat province, who, having the first time shipped off a large cargo ofthis worthless article, hoped to have accomplished the deception again,with equal success. Barks from the territory of the Upper Huallagahave never found their way to the Brazils on the Maranon, for anycommunication between Cuchero and Jabatinga is impossible and neverexisted ;besides which, the commerce in Huanuco had even ceasedbefore the Brazilians had permission to come to Maynas. In the provinceof Para, even under the flourishing state of trade, there arestrong prejudices against the sale of Peruvian fever bark, for the betterkinds have never been sent there. Thus the produce of the Montanaof Huanuco has always been transmitted to Lima, and thence toEurope by Cape Horn, and never took the imaginary way of the RiverMaranon.In the Cinchona forests of Huanuco, the collectors were very attentiveeven to variations arising from locality. Thus they gathered thebark only from trees which grew on steep declivities or mountain-tops,rejecting the finest trunks that stood collected in promising groups,(manchas,) where the soil appeared moist and the air warm and deficientin proper ventilation. For this reason the price of the producevaried considerably even in small districts, that bark being most costlywhich was obtained from the coldest and most elevated spots. Theprovinces of Conchuras and Huamalies abound in forests of Cinchonas;near the villages of Cayambe and Pillao, and in Cuchero and Casapi,and on the mountains of Panataguas and Pampayaco, the very bestkinds are procured. That from Pozuzo is small and inferior; whilethe bark of the Cascarilla hoya de Oliva, which grows only in smallquantities near San Rafael, is considered the finest of all. With theexception of some few haciendas, all the above-mentioned countries,which teem with Cinchona trees, belong to no individual in particular ;and it is the same with the unappropriated wilds of the Huallaga, whichare uninhabited, and protected by no fort or government defence.Every one has a right to collect there, and it does not seem as if asingle regulation of any kind existed with reference to the Cascarillas.1. Limb of the corolla stupose. Leaves scrobiculate.829. C.micrantha Fl.peruv.ii. 52. 1. 194. Ruiz and Pav. quinolsuppl. p. 1. iv.DC.prodr. 354. C. scrobiculata Humb. andBonpl.pl. aquin. i. p. 165. t. 47. DC.prodr. iv. 352. High,cool, and wooded mountains of Peru, near Chicoplaya, Monzon,the Pueblo de San Antonio de Playa grande R. and P. ; forestsin the province of St. Jaen de Bracamorros H. and B. The lasttravellers were told that it also occurs at Chirinas Tabaconas,S. Ignacio, and Tambovapa. Cuchero Poppig.Branches quadrangular, quite smooth except among the inflorescence.Leaves oblong, obtuse, or hardly acute, rather membranous,very large, often a span long without the petiole, quite smooth oneach side, very distinctly pitted at the axils of the veins, and either412