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Updated: May 25, 2025
In 1866, however, both the British and Dutch Indian Governments purchased small quantities of seed from Mr. Charles Ledger. From this seed the very valuable plantations of Java and Ceylon have been propagated. I have already described the method of cultivating Cinchona Ledgeriana adopted by the planters, and how advantage is taken of the extreme liability of the cinchona plant to hybridization.
It is from the nurseries thus formed that the plantations of Java and Ceylon were stocked. In Java the cinchona is ordinarily grown by grafting slips from a hybrid or Ledgeriana of known quality on to the Succirubra stem. The succirubra grows fast, but yields only a small percentage of quinine; the hybrid contains from ten to sixteen per cent. of sulphate of quinine.
"The seed taken by the Netherlands Government cost it barely £50. "Such, then, is the story attaching to the now famous Cinchona Ledgeriana, the source of untold wealth to Java, Ceylon, and, I hope, to India and elsewhere. I am proud to see my dream of close on forty years ago is realized; Europe is no longer dependent on Peru or Bolivia for its supply of life-giving quinine."
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