The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [828]
———
The Linden tree is frequent in all the northern and middle states of American, and is in grateful use as a shade tree in several of the principal cities — but we doubt if our fellow citizens are acquainted with its excellence in various purposes as detailed in the following extract from a Scotch paper — we recommend its perusal to our country readers:
Of ever other tree connected with rural economy, perhaps the linden is the most valuable. In Russia, its properties are so well understood that it is seen growing in every hamlet and village possessing a soil capable of nourishing it. The wood is not only manufactured into furniture, but into a variety of domestic utensils. Cords and matting are made from its inner rind, while its aromatic blossoms not only perfume the air and feed the bees, but make an agreeable ptisan for the invalid. The Circassians feed their bees on the blossoms, to produce the fine, green honey, aromatic in odor and delicious in flavor, esteemed so great a delicacy by the rich gourmands of Constantinople and Teheran. The young and tender sprigs, with their foliage, serve to mix with fodder during the depth of winter, being highly palatable to the cattle. It is an ornamental tree, and may be seen adorning nearly every public garden and promenade in Germany.
———
THE QUINQUINA TREE. — Loxa, or Loja, which is pronounced with a guttural aspiration familiar to the Spanish language, is a small town built by Mercadillo, one of Gonzales Pizarro's captains, [[about]] 1546, in an agreeable valley, on the river Catamayo. The meridian altitudes of the sun, give its latitude four degrees and almost one minute south, that is, near seventy leagues south of Quito; being under the same meridian nearly, and about eighty leagues from the coast of Peru. Its elevation is a mean between that of the mountains which form the vast chain of the Andes, and the valleys of the coast. The quicksilver stood at Loxa at twenty-one inches eight lines, whence it may be concluded, on comparing several experiments, that Loxa is about eight hundred toises above the level of the sea. The climate is very pleasant, and the heats are indeed great, but not excessive.
The best quinquina, at least that of most repute, is found on the mountain of Cajanuma, about two leagues and a half to the south of Loxa; and from thence came the first that was carried to Europe. Within these sixty years, the dealers have obtained a certificate from a notary, that their quinquina is of the growth of Cajanuma.
The