Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Of All The Vegetable Productions Of Those Countries, That Which The
Industry Of The Catalonian Capuchins Has Rendered The Most Celebrated
Is The Tree That Furnishes The Cortex Angosturae, Which Is Erroneously
Designated By The Name Of Cinchona Of Carony.
We were fortunate enough
to make it first known as a new genus distinct from the cinchona, and
belonging to the family of meliaceae, or of zanthoxylus.
This salutary
drug of South America was formerly attributed to the Brucea ferruginea
which grows in Abyssinia, to the Magnolia glauca, and to the Magnolia
plumieri. During the dangerous disease of M. Bonpland, M. Ravago sent
a confidential person to the missions of Carony, to procure for us, by
favour of the Capuchins of Upata, branches of the tree in flower which
we wished to be able to describe. We obtained very fine specimens, the
leaves of which, eighteen inches long, diffused an agreeable aromatic
smell. We soon perceived that the cuspare (the indigenous name of the
cascarilla or corteza del Angostura) forms a new genus; and on sending
the plants of the Orinoco to M. Willdenouw, I begged he would dedicate
this plant to M. Bonpland. The tree, known at present by the name of
Bonplandia trifoliata, grows at the distance of five or six leagues
from the eastern bank of the Carony, at the foot of the hills that
surround the missions Capapui, Upata and Alta Gracia. The Caribbee
Indians make use of an infusion of the bark of the cuspare, which they
consider as a strengthening remedy.
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