of the smaller branches, as it dries, curls
up, forming "quills," the thicker masses from the stems constituting the
"flat" bark of commerce. The drying, packing and transport of the bark
are all operations of a laborious description conducted under most
disadvantageous conditions.

The enormous medicinal consumption of these barks, and the wasteful and
reckless manner of procuring them in America long ago, caused serious
and well-grounded apprehension that the native forests would quickly
become exhausted. The attention of European communities was early
directed to the necessity of securing steady and permanent supplies by
introducing the more valuable species into localities likely to be
favourable to their cultivation. The first actual attempt to rear plants
was made in Algeria in 1849; but the effort was not successful. In 1854
the Dutch government seriously undertook the task of introducing the
trees into the island of Java, and an expedition for that purpose was
fitted out on an adequate scale. Several hundreds of young trees were
obtained, of which a small proportion was successfully landed and
planted in Java; and as the result of great attention the cultivation of
cinchona plantations in that island became highly prosperous and
promising. The desirability of introducing cinchonas into the East
Indies was urged in a memorial addressed to the East India Company
between 1838 and 1842 by Sir Robert Christison and backed by Dr Forbes
Royle; but no active step was taken till 1852, when, again on the motion
of Dr Royle, some efforts to obtain plants were made through consular
agents. In the end the question was seriously taken up, and Sir Clements
R. Markham was appointed to head an expedition to obtain young trees
from South America and convey them to India. The transference of the
plants was attended with considerable difficulty, but in 1861 under his
superintendence a consignment of plants was planted in a favourable
situation in the Nilgiri Hills. For several years subsequently
additional supplies of plants of various species were obtained from
different regions of South America, and some were also procured from the
Dutch plantations in Java. Now the culture has spread over a wide area
in southern India, in Ceylon, on the slopes of the Himalayas, and in
British Burma, and has become widely spread through the tropics
generally. The species grown are principally _Cinchona officinalis, C.
Calisaya, C. succirubra, C.