HISTORY IN BOTANICAL STUDY.
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bark" had practically ceased. Exploitation of the northern
forests set in and was if possible more wasteful, because more
intensive than it had ever been in Bolivia and in Ecuador. But
one feature did not change: the old rivalry between south and
north still survived and showed itself in the names given to the
kinds of bark exported. The barks of Bolivia and of Ecuador
still remained "yellow bark" and "red": those from the
northern Andes reached Europe as "hard Carthagena" or
"soft Colombian."
Even European impassiveness gave way before the prospect
of complete exhaustion of the supplies of Cinchona bark from
the Andes and, after two centuries of apathy, to which there
was but one exception, the task of cultivating Cinchona outside
its indigenous area was seriously taken in hand. The story of
that beneficent enterprise, I need hardly say, offers as many
and as striking illustrations of the need for attention to the
methods of the Civil Historian as any so far submitted. But
I have already taxed your endurance unduly and shall allude
only to two points that, though bearing upon the transfer of
Cinchona from the Andes, do not fall within the limits of that
nineteenth century enterprise.
Mr. Ramsbottom has added to what was known regarding
Cinchona, a reference by Sir Hans Sloane to "the bark of the
tree which the Malabars call Ette," his material of which, though
too imperfect for exact determination, Sir Hans thought "to
be the Jesuits' bark." The idea was not at all extravagant:
Sir Hans, who was keenly interested in the. welfare of the Chelsea
Physick Garden, could have known that in 1685 this garden
possessed a living example of the tree that yields Jesuits' bark:
he was aware that Spain had brought to the Philippines a number
of useful American plants, some of which had found their way
to Malabar. But the packet service which led to this result
was between Acapulco and Manila: direct intercourse between
Lima and Manila was rare, interchange between Lima and
Acapulco was unusual. In any case, the Indian economic
botanist knows that the treee for which the Tamil name is
Yetti, happens to be Strychnos Nux-Vomica, and the historian
concludes that there is no reliable evidence that Spain made
any effort to transport Cinchona from Peru to her Asiatic
possessions.