Transcriber's Notes
--A larger version of some images is obtained by clicking on them.
--Footnotes have all been moved to the end of the text.
--Silently corrected palpable typos.
--Variations in hyphenation have been maintained.
--Assumed printer's errors have been corrected.
HINCHONA-PLANTS AT OOTACAMUND,
In August 1881 (from a Photograph). A flowering branch of Chinchona in the foreground.
FRONTISPIECE. Page 487
TRAVELS
IN
PERU AND INDIA.
PLANTS AND SEEDS IN SOUTH AMERICA, AND
THEIR INTRODUCTION INTO INDIA.
By CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, F.S.A., F.R.G.S.,
CORR. MEM. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHILE;
AUTHOR OF 'CUZCO AND LIMA.'
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1862.
The right of Translation is reserved.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.
The introduction of quinine-yielding Chinchona-treesinto India, and the cultivation of the "PeruvianBark" in our Eastern possessions, where that inestimablefebrifuge is almost a necessary of life, has forsome years engaged the attention of the IndianGovernment. In 1859 the author of the presentwork was intrusted, by the Secretary of State forIndia in Council, with the duty of superintending allthe necessary arrangements for the collection of Chinchona-plantsand seeds of the species esteemed incommerce, in South America, and for their introductioninto India. This important measure has nowbeen crowned with complete success, and it is theobject of the following pages to relate the previoushistory of the Chinchona-plant; to describe theforests in South America where the most valuablespecies grow; to record the labours of those whowere engaged in exploring them; and to give anaccount of all the proceedings connected with thecultivation of Chinchona-plants in India.
In the performance of this service it was a part of[Pg vi]my duty to explore the forests of the Peruvianprovince of Caravaya, which has never yet beendescribed by any English traveller; and the firstpart of the work is occupied by an account of thevarious species of Chinchona-plants and their previoushistory, a narrative of my travels in Peru,and a record of the labours of the agents whomI employed to collect plants and seeds of thevarious species of Chinchonæ in other parts of SouthAmerica.
The traveller who ascends to the lofty plateau ofthe Cordilleras cannot fail to be deeply interested int