There is also a French loan of 800,000l. secured on the profits of guano sold in France.
The whole foreign debt of Peru amounted to 4,491,042l. in 1857; and the domestic debt to 4,835,708l. The foreign debt is annually reduced by means of a sinking fund.
[365] Memorias de los Vireyes que han gobernado el Peru. (Lima, 1859.)
[366] After his death 22 wounds were found on his body, and 2 bullets lodged.
[367] Mr. Howard has recently obtained 8·5 per cent. of alkaloids from a specimen of red bark.
[368] There is no ascertained law by which many of the species of the chinchona genus are thus limited to narrow zones as regards latitude. Mr. Spruce mentions that on the lower regions of the Andes of Pasto and Popayan, in New Granada, there are the conditions of climate and altitude requisite for the growth of C. succirubra, but it has not been found there.
[369] This is not the same as the pata de gallinazo of Huanuco, which has been named by Mr. Howard C. Peruviana.
[370] Mr. Cross sowed eight of the seeds; one began to germinate on the fourth day, and at the end of a fortnight four seeds had pushed their radicles. In three weeks one had the seed-leaves completely developed; and on the twenty-eighth day after sowing, the last of the eight pushed its radicle. Eight chinchona-seeds, gathered by Mr. Spruce in 1859, were sown at Guayaquil, which had remained nine months in his herbarium. Of these four germinated, which clearly shows that well-ripened and properly-dried seeds do not lose their vitality for a much longer period than their excessive delicacy would lead one to suspect.
[371] 1. Notes of a visit to the Chinchona Forests, by R. Spruce, Esq., printed by the Linnæan Society, vol. iv. of their Proceedings.
2. Mr. Spruce's Report to the Under Secretary of State for India, Oct. 12, 1860.