Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Was Long
Used Only For The Building Of Houses, And Has Become Celebrated
Since 1797, Under The Name Of The Cascarilla Or Bark-Tree
(Cinchona) Of New Andalusia.
Its trunk rises scarcely above fifteen
or twenty feet.
Its alternate leaves are smooth, entire, and oval.*
(* At the summit of the boughs, the leaves are sometimes opposite
to each other, but invariably without stipules.) Its bark very
thin, and of a pale yellow, is a powerful febrifuge. It is even
more bitter than the bark of the real cinchona, but is less
disagreeable. The cuspa is administered with the greatest success,
in a spirituous tincture, and in aqueous infusion, both in
intermittent and in malignant fevers.
On the coasts of New Andalusia, the cuspa is considered as a kind
of cinchona; and we were assured, that some Aragonese monks, who
had long resided in the kingdom of New Grenada, recognised this
tree from the resemblance of its leaves to those of the real
Peruvian bark-tree. This, however, is unfounded; since it is
precisely by the disposition of the leaves, and the absence of
stipules, that the cuspa differs totally from the trees of the
rubiaceous family. It may be said to resemble the family of the
honeysuckle, or caprifoliaceous plants, one section of which has
alternate leaves, and among which we find several cornel-trees,
remarkable for their febrifuge properties.* (* Cornus florida, and
C. sericea of the United States. - Walker on the Virtues of the
Cornus and the Cinchona compared.
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