[525] The only reason why the value of quill-bark is much less than that of tabla-bark is that the former is usually mixed with spurious barks. Otherwise the value of quill-bark would only be about threepence per lb. less than tabla-bark.
[526] Cinnamon is one of the plants which, like the chinchonæ, are cultivated solely for their bark. Mr. Thwaites, the Director of the Botanical Gardens in Ceylon, has supplied me with a few particulars respecting the cultivation of cinnamon. The young shoots are peeled twice during the year, at a particular period of growth, when the bark comes off readily. This time is known at once by the peelers, from the appearance of the young shoots, and the process of peeling is then a very expeditious one, with practised hands. Young plants are raised from seeds in nurseries, and planted six feet apart, when they are a foot or eighteen inches long. They will commonly bear peeling in three or four years after being transplanted, if in a favourable locality and properly attended to. The roots are earthed up frequently, to keep the soil loose and free from weeds. In 1858, 750,744 lbs. of cinnamon were exported from Ceylon, worth 37,537l. There are forty-nine cinnamon-gardens in the island.
[527] Mr. McIvor observes that the leaves of all the chinchona-plants at Ootacamund are exceedingly bitter to the taste, and he suggests that these leaves, which naturally fall off the trees in succession, may be turned to account by being imported to England as a substitute for hops in the manufacture of beer. They would no doubt prove a healthy ingredient in beer, but it remains to be proved whether their bitter would preserve it as well as hops.
[528] "Attacked with violent tertian ague, and without any medicine, in Pampa-yacu, I made use of the green bark direct from the chinchona-tree, which I peeled from one growing a few hundred steps distant; and although, in consequence of unavoidable exposure in the rainy season, and the very great exhaustion after eight months' wild forest life, the disease returned on three occasions, it was each time conquered within a week. The very unpleasant additional effect, in this case, of the green bark, of producing obstinate obstructions, demands consideration. It might be well obviated by a plentiful addition of Epsom salts to the infusion. After the first dose of this fresh and unadulterated remedy, a sensation of general well-being is felt, and after recovery, on the first excursion, one approaches the healing trees with warm feelings of gratitude, whose beautiful reddish blossoms appear in such quantities in January, and their round crowns can be distinguished at a distance."—Poeppig, Reise, ii. p. 223.
[529] Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas, p. 13.
[530] "From the unfitness of the 'Grey Bark' species for the production of quinine, comparatively small good will be likely to result from their naturalisation."—Howard, Introduction, p. xiii.
[531] Quinine and Antiperiodics in their Therapeutic Relations, by Dr. J. Macpherson (Calcutta, 1856), p. 27.
[532] There are 477 coffee estates in Ceylon; and in 1858-59 the quantity of coffee exported was 601,595 cwts., valued at 1,488,019l. In the same year the revenue was 654,961l., expenditure 594,382l., value of imports 3,444,889l., and of exports 2,328,790l.
[533] See Mr. Thwaites's Report, dated Peradenia, Sept. 28th, 1861.
[534] I have taken the following brief notices of Sikkim, Bhotan, and the Khassya hills, from Dr. Hooker's Flora Indica, and Himalayan Journals.