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CHAPTER XX.

CONVEYANCE OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS AND SEEDS FROM SOUTH AMERICA TO INDIA.

Transmission of dried specimens-Voyages of plants in Wardian cases Arrival of plants and seeds in India - Depôt at Kew- Treatment of plants in Wardian cases Effects of introduction of chinchona-plants into India on trade in South America - Neilgherry hills.

THE attempt to make simultaneous collections of seeds and plants of all the valuable species of chinchona was thus crowned with almost complete success. Out of my original scheme the C. lancifolia of New Granada was the only one which had not been procured. It is unnecessary to say more respecting the numerous difficulties and dangers which were encountered by the collectors, for the narrative of the proceedings detailed in previous chapters will have made these sufficiently obvious. So far as the labours in South America were concerned, all obstacles were surmounted, and the objects of this great enterprise were fully attained. Not only were plants and seeds safely brought to the coast, but, in every instance, the collectors took care to provide themselves with botanical specimens from the chinchona-trees. Thus the leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of each species, which were brought to England, placed the identity of the valuable species to which the plants and seeds belonged beyond the remotest possibility of a doubt.

1 My collection of dried specimens is deposited in the museum and herbarium at Kew. It consists of leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of C. Calisaya; leaves and flowers of C. micrantha; leaves and fruit of C. Caravayensis; fruit of Pimentelia glomerata; and

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bark from the branches of almost every species of chinchona and allied genera in the Caravayan forests.

Mr. Spruce's collection of all the parts of C. suceirubra is in the herbarium at Kew.

Mr. Pritchett's collection of leaves,

veying these precious mule-loads to the coast of Peru, and safely embarking them, only half the difficulties had been overcome; and I could not but feel that some failures and disappointments must be expected before the chinchona-plants were fairly established in India.

There was not much reason for apprehension with regard to the seeds; but the plants, in the absence of any provision for conveying them direct across the Pacific, had to undergo an ordeal of unprecedented duration. Yet the great advantage of introducing plants as well as seeds, in the immense start they would give to the young plantations in India, was strongly felt, and the complete success that attended the hazardous transit of at least one relay, which came under peculiarly favourable circumstances, fully justified the attempt.

I gave directions to Mr. Spruce and Mr. Pritchett to send small parcels of seeds of each species to Jamaica and Trinidad, in obedience to an order received from England, so that quinine-yielding trees might also be introduced into our West Indian colonies; and the results of the experiment in those islands will be given in a future chapter. The great bulk of the collections, however, were despatched to India, by the roundabout way of Southampton, directly they arrived on the coast of the Pacific.

The thirty Wardian cases which I sent out round Cape Horn were three feet two inches long, ten feet ten inches broad, and three feet two inches high; and, with soil and plants, each case weighed a little over three hundredweight. The collection of plants of C. Calisaya, C. ovata, and C.

fruit, and bark of C. nitida, C. micrantha, C. Peruviana, and C. obovata, is in the possession of Mr. Howard.

Mr. Cross's dried specimens of leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of C. Condaminea (C. Chahuarguera of Pavon),

bark, leaves, and flowers of C. crispa of Tafalla, and bark and leaves of C. Lucumafolia, are partly in my possession, partly in that of Mr. Howard, and partly in that of Mr. Veitch.

micrantha filled fifteen cases; and the other fifteen received the collection of C. succirubra at Guayaquil. I also had six cases of somewhat smaller dimensions constructed at Lima for the plants from Huanuco. The fifteen cases containing the collection of chinchona-plants from Caravaya sailed from the port of Islay on the 23rd of June, and reached Panama on the 6th of July, 1860, when 207 had already begun to throw out green shoots. On their arrival in England, in August, these 207 plants were in a most flourishing and healthy condition, and continued so until their arrival at Alexandria early in September. But the intense heat of the Red Sea, where the thermometer ranged from 99° in the night to 107° in the day-time, proved too much for them, and the damage was increased by a detention of a week at Bombay. Their roots were attacked by rot, yet, on their arrival in the Neilgherry hills, their leaves still looked fresh, and several hundred green cuttings were obtained from them, which, however, failed to strike. The cases containing the chinchonaplants from Huanuco left Lima in September, and were also in a most promising state when they reached England, but on their arrival in India they were all dead. The "red-bark" collection, under the able management of Mr. Cross, sailed from Guayaquil on the 2nd of January, 1861. On their arrival in England in excellent order, six of them were left at Kew as a precaution, and replaced by six plants of C. Calisaya supplied by Sir W. Hooker. At that season the climate of the Red Sea is cool, and, owing to this circumstance and still more to the intelligent watchfulness of a good practical gardener, 463 plants of C. succirubra and six of C. Calisaya were handed over to the superintendent on the Neilgherry hills, in as vigorous and healthy a condition as could possibly have been hoped for after such a voyage.

The "grey-bark" seeds arrived in the Neilgherry hills early in January, 1861, and the "red-bark" in the following

March, and both collections came up abundantly. The supply of seeds of C. Condaminea reached their destination in Southern India in February 1862. In order to guard against all accidents, a portion of the seeds of each species was left in England, and a depôt of young chinchona-plants has thus been formed at Kew Gardens, with a view to fall back upon them in the event of possible failures or misfortunes in India. Seeds of each of the species were also sent to Ceylon, to which Sir W. Hooker added a few plants of C. Calisaya from his stock at Kew.

Thus, in spite of one or two disappointments, the great object of the undertaking sanctioned by the Secretary of State for India was fully attained. By the spring of 1861 a large supply of plants and young seedlings was established in the Neilgherry hills; and at the present moment we have thousands of chinchona-plants, of all the valuable species, flourishing and multiplying rapidly in Southern India, and in Ceylon. When the unprecedented length of the voyages and the numerous trans-shipments are taken into consideration, the wonder is that any of the plants should have been successfully conveyed from the slopes of the Andes in South America to the ghauts in Southern India, over thousands of miles, through every variety of climate, and subject to the risk of crossing the isthmus of Panama, of changing steamers at the island of St. Thomas, at Southampton, at Suez, and at Bombay, and of the journey through Egypt.

The most important introduction of plants into India, by means of Wardian cases, previous to the arrival of the chinchonas, was that of the tea from China in 1849 and following years by Mr. Fortune. On those occasions the cases were strongly and coarsely made, the glass shades firmly fixed, and the glass itself thick, and glazed in pieces of moderate size.

2 Six cases of chinchona-plants from this depôt were despatched to Ceylon by the mail of March 4, 1862.

The frames were protected by a grating of iron wire, with a canvas covering capable of being unrolled so as to screen the plants from the direct rays of the sun, if necessary. The soil was not less than eight or ten inches deep, and kept down by cross-battens, and the plants were fairly established in it before starting. In 1849 Mr. Fortune sowed large quantities of seeds in the cases, between rows of young plants, which germinated on their way from China to India, and reached their destination in the Himalayas in good conditon. Out of 250 tea-plants, 215 arrived in perfect order.3

But it was an easy process to convey plants by the short voyage from China to Calcutta, when compared with the introduction of plants from the western coast of South America into India; and the performance of the latter feat, in the case of the chinchona-plants under Mr. Cross's care, is undoubtedly the most extraordinary success of the kind that has yet been achieved.

A few remarks on the treatment of plants in Wardian cases were supplied to me by Mr. Weir and Mr. Cross, who acquired their experience in the voyages from South America to India; and by Mr. McIvor, who received the plants on the Neilgherry hills. The cases were filled with soil to a depth of nine to ten inches, in which the chinchonas were planted in rows, from the back to the front of the case. The distance from plant to plant was regulated by their size, but, in the case of their having much foliage, they should be rather wide apart, for the crowding of foliage is always injurious, and often brings on mildew or mould. After having been planted they were well watered, and shaded from the glare of the mid-day sun. On the surface of the soil, between each row of plants, a batten was placed, extending from the back to the front of the case, and held firmly down by two longer

3 See Fortune's Tea Districts, chap. xxi. p. 358-9.

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