The valuable species of Chinchona-trees--their history, their
discoverers, and their forests.
I.--THE LOXA REGION, AND ITS _CROWN BARKS_.
THE region around Loxa, on the southern frontier of the modern republic
of Ecuador, is the original home of the Chinchona, and nearly in the
centre of its latitudinal range of growth. On the lofty grass-covered
slopes of the Andes, around the little town of Loxa, and in the
sheltered ravines and dense forests, those precious trees were found
which first made known to the world the healing virtues of Peruvian
bark. They were most plentifully met with in the forests of Uritusinga,
Rumisitana, Cajanuma, Boqueron, Villonaco, and Monje, all within short
distances of Loxa.
Linnæus had named these trees _Chinchona officinalis_; but when
Humboldt and Bonpland examined them, the discovery of other species
yielding medicinal bark had rendered the name inappropriate, and they
very properly re-christened them, after the distinguished Frenchman
who had originally described them, _Chinchona Condaminea_. Humboldt
says that they grow on mica slate and gneiss, from 6000 to 8000 feet
above the sea, with a mean temperature between 60° and 65° Fahr. In
his time the tree was cut down in its first flowering season, or in
the fourth or seventh of its age, according as it had sprung from a
vigorous root-shoot, or from a seed. He describes the luxuriance of
the vegetation to be such that the younger trees, only six inches in
diameter, often attain from fifty-three to sixty-four English feet in
height. "This beautiful tree," he continues, "which is adorned with
leaves above five inches long and two broad, growing in dense forests,
seems always to aspire to rise above its neighbours. As its upper
branches wave to and fro in the wind, their red and shining foliage
produces a strange and peculiar effect, recognisable from a great
distance."[36] It varies much in the shape of the leaves, according
to the altitude at which it grows, and bark-collectors themselves
would be deceived if they did not know the tree by the glands, so long
unobserved by botanists. The _C. Condaminea_ described by Humboldt
is the same as the _C. Uritusinga_ of Pavon. It once yielded great
quantities of thick trunk bark, but, owing to reckless felling through
a course of years, it is now almost exterminated, and its bark is
rarely met with in commerce. The distinguished botanist Don Francisco
Caldas examined the chinchona forests of Loxa after Humboldt, between
1803 and 1809. He says that the famous quina-tree of Loxa grows in the
forests of Uritusinga and Cajanuma, at a height of from 6200 to 8200
feet above the sea, in a temperature of 41° to 72° Fahr.; but that it
is only found between the rivers Zamora and Cachiyacu.[37] He describes
the tree as from thirty to forty-eight feet high, with three or more
stems growing from the same root; the leaves as lanceolate, shining on
both sides, with veins a rosy colour, a short and tender pubescence
on the under side when young, and when past maturity a bright scarlet
colour; the bark black when exposed to the sun and wind, a brownish
colour when closed in by other trees, and always covered with
lichens;[38] and the rock on which the trees grow, a micaceous schist.
Don Francisco José de Caldas, a native of New Granada, was one of
the most eminent scientific men that South America has yet produced.
He was associated with Mutis in the botanical expedition of New
Granada; he explored the chinchona region as far as Loxa; and thus
takes his place as one of those to whom we are indebted for throwing
light on the nature of the trees yielding Peruvian bark. Caldas was
born at Popayan in the year 1770; and, from early youth, devoted
himself to the pursuits of science with untiring energy, especially
studying botany, mathematics, meteorology, and physical geography. He
constructed his own barometer and sextant, and, ignorant of the methods
adopted in Europe, he discovered the way of ascertaining altitudes by
a boiling-point thermometer. He has left many memoirs on botanical and
other subjects behind him, and his style is always animated, clear,
and interesting; but many of the productions of this remarkable man
are still in manuscript,[39] and others are lost to us for ever. Above
all, it is to be regretted that his botanical chart of the chinchona
genus, which he promised in one of his memoirs, has never seen the
light. After the declaration of independence Caldas was nominated by
the Congress at Bogota to publish the works of his friend the botanist
Mutis. When the brutal Spanish General Morillo entered Bogota in June
1816, he perpetrated a series of savage massacres, in which more than
600 of the most distinguished men in the country fell victims. Among
them was Caldas, who was shot through the back on the 30th of October
1816.[40]
The Spanish botanists Ruiz and Pavon also examined the chinchona-trees
of Loxa; and the latter described two species, _C. Uritusinga_,
named from the mountain on which it was once most abundant, and _C.
Chahuarguera_, so called from a fancied resemblance of the bark to
a pair of breeches (_huara_ in Quichua) made from the fibre of the
American aloe (_chahuar_). To these the botanist Tafalla added the
_C. crispa_. These three species are all included in Humboldt's _C.
Condaminea_, which is readily known by the little pits, bordered
with hairs, at the axils of the veins on the under side of the leaf.
It would appear that at one period of growth these little pits or
scrobicules are wanting, but when the plant is in full vigour they are
markedly prominent. The _C. Chahuarguera_[41] is described by Pavon as
growing from eighteen to twenty-four feet in height; although now the
trees, which yield the Loxa bark of commerce, do not attain a height
of more than four to nine feet. It is met with on the grassy open
crests of mountain ridges, in light sandy soil interspersed with rocks,
amongst shrubs and young plants. The barks of Loxa were called _crown
barks_, because they were reserved for the exclusive use of the royal
pharmacy at Madrid; and they originally sold at Panama for five and
six dollars, and at Seville for twelve dollars the pound; but in later
times they were much adulterated, and the price fell to one dollar the
pound.
The _C. Chahuarguera_ is the _rusty crown bark_ of commerce,[42] and
the _C. crispa_ is the _quina fina de Loxa_ or _crespilla negra_ of the
natives. A parcel of it has quite recently sold at a higher price than
_Calisaya_ quills. With this _rusty crown bark_ are mixed larger quills
particularly rich in the alkaloid called chinchonidine.[43] The _C.
Uritusinga_ grew to the height of a lofty forest tree, but it is now
nearly exterminated. The leaves assume a red colour before they fall,
acquiring the most beautiful tints, and the tree is one of the finest
in those forests.[44] It is said that there is a great difference in
the bark, according as it is grown on the sides of mountains most
exposed to the morning or evening sun; and its position is believed to
have a great influence on the quality of its alkaloids. The usual yield
of the large quills is 3.5 to 3.6 per cent.[45]
The bark-collectors of Loxa are said to show some little forethought,
a quality which is entirely wanting in most of their fraternity. To
save the trees they occasionally cut off the whole of the bark, with
the exception of one long strip, which gradually replaces its loss;
and the second cutting is called _cascarilla resecada_. This practice
was in use in the days of the botanist Ruiz, who protested against
it, and declared that it was very injurious to the trees, many having
been destroyed by it.[46] Later accounts, however, show that the
bark-collectors of Loxa are as thoughtlessly destructive as those in
other parts of South America. They often pull up the roots, while the
annual burning of the slopes, and the continual cropping of the young
shoots by cattle, assist the work of destruction.[47]
It is, therefore, well that the _C. Chahuarguera_ and _C. Uritusinga_,
the earliest known and among the most valuable of the chinchona-trees,
should have been saved from extinction by timely introduction into
India.
The annual export of Loxa bark, from the port of Payta, is from 800 to
1000 cwts.
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 species _C. 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 of _C. 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 of _C. 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 of _C. succirubra_, and sell it at
Guayaquil, 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 8_s._ 9_d._ 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 the _C. succirubra_, amounted to 7006 quintals, valued at
23,353_l._[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, a native 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 called _C. lancifolia_, _C.
cordifolia_, _C. oblongifolia_, and _C. ovalifolia_, yielding four
kinds of barks--_anaranjada_, _amarilla_, _roja_, and _blanca_, or
orange-coloured, yellow, red, and white.[55] He declared the _C.
lancifolia_ to be excellent for intermittent fevers, in which he was
right, and to be identical with the _C. Condaminea_ of Loxa, in which
he was wrong; the _C. cordifolia_ he 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 genus _Ladenbergia_,
and contain no fever-dispelling alkaloids whatever; while the _C.
Cordifolia_ is 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]
The _C. lancifolia_ of 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 valuable _C. lancifolia_ was
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 the _C. lancifolia_ afresh, producing
the _quina 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 of _C. 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. The _C. 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.
The _C. lancifolia_ of New Granada has been found to contain as much as
2-1/2 per cent. of quinine and from 1 to 2 per cent. 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 chinchona forests 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 the _C. micrantha_ in 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 of _C. 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 from _C. nitida_, but since that time they are believed to have
come chiefly from _C. 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 the natives 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.
[Illustration: 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 the _cascarilleros_,
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. The
_cateador_, or searcher, then climbed a high tree, and, with the aid of
experience and sharp sight, soon discovered the _manchas_ or 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. The _cateador_, 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 success of this
operation, for the bark easily becomes mouldy and loses its colour. The
_cascarilleros_ got 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]
The _C. micrantha_ abounds in the province of Huanuco, and the bark
is known as _Cascarilla provinciana_. It yields 2.7 per cent. of
chinchonine, and is much sought after for the Russian market.
The _C. nitida_ is a lofty tree growing in the higher regions of
Huanuco, and is known by the natives as _quina cana legitima_ (genuine
grey bark). It grows at a greater height than the former species, and
yields 2.2 per cent. of chinchonine.
The _C. Peruviana_, so named by Mr. Howard, is the _Cascarilla de
pata de gallinazo_ of the natives. It grows in the forests at a lower
elevation than _C. nitida_, and yields 3 per cent. of chinchonine
and chinchonidine, consequently indicating a considerable amount
of febrifugal power. Quinine has also been found in samples of grey
bark.[72]
The name of _grey_ bark refers to the striking effect of the
overspreading thallus of various _Graphideæ_, 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 the _Chinchona Calisaya_[75] was
recognised as containing more of that alkaloid than any other species.
After 1820 the demand for _calisaya_ bark increased enormously; great
numbers of _cascarilleros_, or bark-collectors, entered the forests,
and in a short time scarcely a tree remained 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
the _cascarilleros_ for their bark, that a clamour was raised against
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 the _cascarilleros_, the
_tabla_ or trunk bark at sixty dollars the quintal, and the _canuto_
or quill bark at thirty to thirty-six dollars the quintal. The Pinto
company had only paid eighteen to twenty-two dollars the quintal for
_tabla_, and eight to ten dollars for _canuto_ bark. The favourable
conditions thus offered to _cascarilleros_ induced 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 called _serons_, 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 the _C. 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 species _C. 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 the _yungus_[80] of La Paz; where the species of chinchonæ
continued to multiply under his eye. In Enquisivi he first met with and
studied the _C. 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 proceeded by 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 of _Melastomaceæ_ with violet-coloured flowers
(_Chætogastra_), myrtles, _Gaultherias_, and _Andromedas_; lower down
there were many superb species of _Thibaudias_; and, where the great
forests succeed to the smaller growth of the more elevated region,
the predominant trees were _Escallonias_, arborescent _Eupatorias_,
_Bocconias_, and a fruit-bearing _Papilionacea_ with a scarlet corolla.
He encountered the first forest chinchona-trees at an elevation of 7138
feet, being the _C. 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 of _C. Calisaya_, on an open grassy ridge or
_pajonal_, 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 of _Bombax_. The forests bordering on the river
Coroico abounded in many species of palms, chiefly _Maximilianas_ and
_Iriarteas_, the latter a singular kind with a trunk supported on long
aërial roots. There were also many trees of _C. micrantha_ on 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 beautiful _Cascarilla magnifolia_, an
allied genus with deliciously fragrant flowers.
The _cascarilleros_ of Bolivia lead a hard and dangerous life. They
only value the _C. Calisaya_, the other species being for them
_carhua-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 a _cascarillero_, 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 three
_chuñus_. 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 able botanist and intrepid
explorer science is indebted, to no small extent, for the present state
of our knowledge of the chinchona genus.
The _C. Calisaya_ species has been divided by Dr. Weddell into
two varieties, namely, a _vera_ and β _Josephiana_. 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 of _C. Calisaya_, called _ychu cascarilla_, or
_cascarilla del pajonal_, by the natives, was named _Josephiana_ by
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, at much higher elevations
than the tree _Calisaya_. There is another tree variety with a somewhat
darker leaf, which Dr. Weddell classed as a distinct species, and
called _C. Boliviana_ in 1849, but which he now considers to be a
mere variety of _C. Calisaya_. The other good kinds in the forests
of Bolivia and Caravaya are _C. micrantha_, and two varieties of _C.
ovata_.
Dr. Weddell brought seeds of _C. Calisaya_ to 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 of _C. Calisaya_ are now flourishing in India. The yield of
quinine for the best kinds of _calisaya_ bark is 3.8 per cent., that
for the _Josephiana_ variety 3.29.[84]
Arica and Islay are the ports for the shipment of _calisaya_ bark; and
in 1859 the quantity and value exported were:--
From Arica 1926 quintals, worth £17,334
" Islay 1365 " " 12,383
---- ------
3291 29,717
---- ------
Jan. 1st to Nov. 30th, 1860, Arica $160,260 = £35,000 (about).
1860, Islay, 1077 quintals.