Rapid destruction of chinchona-trees in South America--Importance
of their introduction into other countries--M. Hasskarl's
mission--Chinchona plantations in Java.
THE collection 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 regards _C. 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 called _C. Uritusinga_ has 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 endless untrodden 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 the _Calisaya_ plant, but to collect plants and seeds of as many
different species as possible. His original orders were 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 as _C. pubescens_,
_C. scrobiculata_, &c.; and on one of these, between the region of grey
barks in Huanuco and that of _C. Calisaya_ in 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 be
_C. Calisaya_; but that species is never found to the north of the
province of Caravaya. He however collected a quantity of seeds of
this imaginary _C. Calisaya_, and four packets of a species which he
called _C. ovata_, with smaller quantities of _C. pubescens_ and _C.
amygdalifolia_.
The species called by M. Hasskarl _C. ovata_ now 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 is
_cascarilla crespilla chica_; and as the _crespilla grande_ is the
_C. ovata_ of Weddell, it is probable that M. Hasskarl was thus led
into the mistake of calling his new species _C. ovata_. The leaves are
smooth above, with a felt-like pubescence on the under surface, and
the hairy capsules are probably an indication of the worthlessness
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 of _C. lanceolata_ of 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 of _C. Calisaya_ for 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 of _C. 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 of _C. lancifolia_ sent 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, called _tjadas_, 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 this _tjadas_ with 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 were only 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 of _C.
lancifolia_ represented by three sickly plants; the collection of
plants of _C. Calisaya_ brought by M. Hasskarl from Peru, also reduced
to three; two plants of _C. Calisaya_ raised 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 1350_l._ a year, the chemist 1100_l._ a year,
and under them there are eight Dutch overseers; the total amount paid
in salaries being 3256_l._ 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 of _C. Calisaya_ and of the worthless species
blossomed, and in 1858 bore fruit. Dr. Junghuhn found that the latter
could not be the _C. ovata_ as named by M. Hasskarl; but he was
himself equally mistaken in naming it _C. 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 delicate _C.
Calisaya_.
In 1858 several of the plants sickened from the attacks of destructive
insects (_Bostrichus_ or _Dermestes_), 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 the _C. Calisaya_ is much
more sensitive than his so-called _C. 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 of _C. Calisaya_ on 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. The _C.
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:--
_C. Calisaya_ 7,316 plants, and 1030 cuttings.
_C. lancifolia_ 80 " " 28 "
Species procured by M. Hasskarl 939,809 " " 18 "
--------
Total 947,205 plants.[109]
Besides 700,264 seeds in stock, or sown. The extreme height attained
by the tallest _C. Calisaya_ was, at the same date, fifteen feet, and
by the worthless species twenty-eight feet. One of the trees of _C.
lancifolia_ had also attained a height of fifteen feet.
Dr. de Vry, the eminent chemist who is associated with Dr. Junghuhn,
and who had for two years previously occupied himself with the study
of the chinchona alkaloids, has been actively engaged in careful
investigations of the chinchona barks in Java. With regard to the _C.
Calisaya_ his results have been very satisfactory. From the trunk-bark
of a plant of this species, six years old, he obtained, in August,
1860, 5 per cent. of alkaloids; and from that of the branches, 2-1/2
per cent. But the specimens of _C. Calisaya_ bark from Java, which have
been sent to the Exhibition of 1862, have a very different appearance,
and are much thinner than those from South America. This circumstance
leads to the inference that the present system of cultivation in Java
is erroneous. With the species introduced by M. Hasskarl, Dr. de Vry
was not so successful. The leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of this
species were sent to Mr. Howard by Dr. Junghuhn; and it was found
that the names of _C. ovata_, given it by M. Hasskarl, and of _C.
Lucumæfolia_ by Dr. Junghuhn, were equally erroneous. It was clear that
it was one of the numerous worthless species, not previously described,
and Mr. Howard, in the seventh number of his work, has named it _C.
Pahudiana_,[110] after M. Charles F. Pahud, who, as Minister of the
Colonies, sent M. Hasskarl to South America in 1852, and who, being
appointed Governor-General of Netherlands India in 1855,[111] did so
much to ensure the success of the chinchona experiment in Java. Up
to 1860 Dr. de Vry had only obtained 0.4 per cent. of alkaloids from
the bark of _C. Pahudiana_, and Mr. Howard's examination coincides
with the analysis of Dr. de Vry in pronouncing it an inferior sort.
In 1861, however, he obtained 3 per cent. of alkaloids from the bark
of the roots of a _C. Pahudiana_ plant eight years old, and 1-1/4 per
cent. from the trunk-bark. From a tree aged two years and three months
he only got 0.09 per cent. from the trunk-bark, and 1.9 per cent. from
the root-bark, of which he states the greater part to be quinine;
while in the trunk-bark there was not a trace of that alkaloid. This
result leads Dr. de Vry to conjecture that the quinine, once formed in
the roots, is employed in the growth of the plant, and that, when it
attains its full growth, the trunk-bark will also be rich in quinine.
If this should not be the case, he hopes that the roots of the young
plants may be used profitably for the manufacture of quinine. It is
to be feared that the quinine in the trunk-bark will not increase
with age, for, while in the younger tree there was 1.9 per cent. of
alkaloids in the roots, chiefly quinine, and 0.09 in the trunk-bark,
in the older one there was 3 per cent. in the roots, of which 1.8 was
quinine, and 1-1/4 per cent. in the trunk-bark, in which there was only
the minutest trace of quinine. Thus, while the quantity of quinine
decreased or remained stationary in the roots, the trunk-bark was still
destitute of that precious alkaloid.
It is possible that Dr. de Vry, in his earnest desire to discover
quinine in a species upon which so much labour and anxiety, and such
vast sums of money, had been expended, may have been deceived by
appearances. Both from the form of the capsules, the absence of quinine
in the upper bark, and the locality whence it was procured, there is
every reason to fear that the _C. Pahudiana_ is a worthless kind; and
the bark of this species, which has been sent to the Exhibition of
1862, is so evidently valueless that no dealer would buy it. In all
valuable species there is a good percentage of alkaloids in the upper
bark, and a very much smaller proportion, which, too, is amorphous
and of little commercial value, in the bark of the roots. This law of
nature, the existence of which is proved by all experience, would have
to be reversed in order to enable the Dutch to extract large supplies
of quinine from the roots of a species, such as _C. Pahudiana_, which
contains none in the upper bark.
It is much to be regretted that the scientific men in Java, instead
of exerting all their skill and talent in the work of cultivating _C.
Calisaya_ and _C. lancifolia_, of the value of which there is no doubt,
should have filled the forests of Java with a kind which from the first
was known to be of very doubtful value, was unknown in commerce, and
the cultivation of which will, it is to be feared, only end in loss and
disappointment.
The valuable species were found to be much more tender, and more
sensitive to external unfavourable influences, than the _C. Pahudiana_;
the latter was therefore propagated rapidly, and unwisely allowed to
outstrip the other kinds in the race, and the consequence has been that
it has gained an immense preponderance. Thus, so far as valuable species
of chinchona-plants are concerned, the Dutch experiment in Java has
been attended by a very small measure of success. After three years
the Dutch gardeners only had forty plants of valuable species in
Java, and after six years they had only increased their stock to seven
thousand plants. It will presently be seen that far greater results
were attained in India within eighteen months of the first introduction
of the chinchona-plants.
----------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+----------
| 1857.[9] | December, | December, |
| At Tjibodas. | 1859.[112] | 1860.[113] | 1861.
+--------------+-------------+-------------+----------
_C. Calisaya_ | 37 | 3,201 | 7,316 | ?
| | | |
_C. lancifolia_ | 3 | 45 | 80 | ?
| | | |
_C. Pahudiana_ | 60 | 96,838 | 939,809 | Millions.
----------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+----------
Yet, so great are the difficulties of this most important undertaking,
that, in spite of the comparative failure in Java, the highest praise
and admiration are due both to M. Hasskarl and to his successors. They
have devoted great ability, no ordinary amount of scientific knowledge,
and untiring perseverance to this good work; and, now that they have
received plants of other really valuable species from India, there is a
prospect that the chinchona cultivation in Java may eventually attain
such a measure of success as will entitle Dr. Junghuhn and Dr. de Vry
to the gratitude of their countrymen.[114]