The countess of Chinchón almost always refers to one of two women, wives of a count of Chinchón:
The European discoverer, in 1638, of the South American native remedy chinchona bark, after whom the plant and bark are named
A woman the subject of a celebrated portrait by Goya in around 1800.
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The name of the genus is due to Linnaeus, who named the tree in 1742 after a Countess of Chinchon, the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who, in 1638, was introduced by natives to the medicinal properties of the bark.
The legend says that the first European ever to be cured from malaria fever was the wife of the Spanish Viceroy, the countess of Chinchon.
The court physican was summoned and urged to save the countess from the wave of fever and chill which was proving fatal for her.
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