Mr. B R OW N ’S L E T T E R .
SIR,
HAVING been informed' of your intention of publifh-
ing an account o f the different fpecies of the genus Cinchona,
permit me to prefent you with a fpecies of Peruvian
Bark newatleaft to me, and which I believe is very
little known in this country *.
In the year 1793 I was engaged to go Surgeon o f the
Speedy Tranfport, Captain Thomas Melvill, belonging
to Mr. Enderby and Sons, Paul’s-Wharf, London. We
were firft bound to New South Wales with provifions, and
afterwards on the Sperm whale filhery along the1 coafts of
Chili and Peru. While fifhing near the GaUapagpe iflands,
our crew unfortunately being feized with the fea fcurvy,
it was found abfolutely neceflary to make the main; in order
to refcefh them. The Captain intended Manta for
this purpofe, a fmall Indian village lying to the fouth-
ward of the Equator; but the wind and current baulking
us, we: were obliged to bear away and run for Teeamez,
another Indian village, fituated in 46 miles north latitude,
and probably near 80 degrees weft longitude. Here
•This appears certaiafrom a collation.o£ the.leaves.with.all.theipecies, pre-
ferved in Sir Jofeph Banks’s Herbarium, with none of which they agree. A moft
faithful reprefentation of thefe leaves i6 given at plate 11.
we lay for ten days, until our people were moftly recovered.
As the province of Quito, to which Tecamez belongs, is
celebrated for producing the Peruvian Bark, I confefs I
was uncommonly anxious to fee a tree fo juftly valuable
for its various medicinal virtues. But the fort commonly
ufed in Europe grew more in the interior parts of the
country than the places I vifited; and my attention was
called to a new fpecies, which I was informed had been
found Angularly efficacious by the medical gentlemen in
South America. As the matter of the ffiip who gave me
the intelligence, and who traded in it, was unfortunately
to fail the next morning, he firft very obligingly agreed
with an Indian to take and fliew me the tree, and at the
fame time fpoke to the Governor in my favour, who
kindly promifed to fupply me with a fmall quantity of
its belt kind—a promife he afterwards very generoufly
performed.
That attention which was due to the ftate of our lick prevented
me from many enquiries that other wife might have
•been made on the fubjedt; but from the limited opportunities
I had of making obfervations, Teeamez Bark feems to
be all of one fpecies, as the trees I examined were of the
fame kind, and the finenefs of their bark was eftimated by
the age of the tree. Young trees of two years old were
much valued, their Bark being thin, brittle, aromatic and
aftringent.