There was not much reason for apprehension with regard to the seeds; but the plants, in the absence of any provision for conveying them direct across the Pacific, had to undergo an ordeal of unprecedented duration. Yet the great advantage of introducing plants as well as seeds, in the immense start they would give to the young plantations in India, was strongly felt, and the complete success that attended the hazardous transit of at least one relay, which came under peculiarly favourable circumstances, fully justified the attempt.
I gave directions to Mr. Spruce and Mr. Pritchett to send small parcels of seeds of each species to Jamaica and Trinidad, in obedience to an order received from England, so that quinine-yielding trees might also be introduced into our West Indian colonies; and the results of the experiment in those islands will be given in a future chapter. The great bulk of the collections, however, were despatched to India, by the roundabout way of Southampton, directly they arrived on the coast of the Pacific.
The thirty Wardian cases which I sent out round Cape Horn were three feet two inches long, ten feet ten inches broad, and three feet two inches high; and, with soil and plants, each case weighed a little over three hundredweight. The collection of plants of _C. Calisaya_, _C. ovata_, and _C. micrantha_ filled fifteen cases; and the other fifteen received the collection of _C. succirubra_ at Guayaquil. I also had six cases of somewhat smaller dimensions constructed at Lima for the plants from Huanuco. The fifteen cases containing the collection of chinchona-plants from Caravaya sailed from the port of Islay on the 23rd of June, and reached Panama on the 6th of July, 1860, when 207 had already begun to throw out green shoots. On their arrival in England, in August, these 207 plants were in a most flourishing and healthy condition, and continued so until their arrival at Alexandria early in September. But the intense heat of the Red Sea, where the thermometer ranged from 99° in the night to 107° in the day-time, proved too much for them, and the damage was increased by a detention of a week at Bombay. Their roots were attacked by rot, yet, on their arrival in the Neilgherry hills, their leaves still looked fresh, and several hundred green cuttings were obtained from them, which, however, failed to strike. The cases containing the chinchona-plants from Huanuco left Lima in September, and were also in a most promising state when they reached England, but on their arrival in India they were all dead. The "red-bark" collection, under the able management of Mr. Cross, sailed from Guayaquil on the 2nd of January, 1861. On their arrival in England in excellent order, six of them were left at Kew as a precaution, and replaced by six plants of _C. Calisaya_ supplied by Sir W. Hooker. At that season the climate of the Red Sea is cool, and, owing to this circumstance and still more to the intelligent watchfulness of a good practical gardener, 463 plants of _C. succirubra_ and six of _C. Calisaya_ were handed over to the superintendent on the Neilgherry hills, in as vigorous and healthy a condition as could possibly have been hoped for after such a voyage.