ON THE ORIGIN OF CASSIA LIGNEA. 19 
Note the Origin of Cassia lignea. By W. T. TuürsELTON 
Dyrt, M.A., F.R.S., Assistant Director Royal Gardens, Kew. 
[Read November 16, 1882.] 
Tux Spice now known in pharmaceutical literature under the 
name of Cassia lignea has, from time immemorial, been an article 
of trade from South China. Flückiger and Hanbury are indeed 
of opinion that it was the Cinnamon of the ancients, what now 
bears the name being peculiar to Ceylon and unnoticed as a pro- 
duct of the island till the 13th century*. Cinnamon and Cassia are, 
however, enumerated amongst the products of the East from the 
earliest periods; and the former was known to the Arabians and 
Persians as Darchini (dar, wood or bark, and chini, Chinese). It 
seems in ancient times to have been carried by Chinese traders 
to the Malabar coast, where it passed into the commerce of the 
Red Sea. In this way the statements of Dioscorides, Ptolemy, 
and others are accounted for, who speak of Cinnamon as a product 
of Arabia and Eastern Africa, countries in which there is no rea- 
son to suppose it ever grew. At the present day it is still an 
important item in Chinese commerce. I find, from the Statistical 
Returns of the Chinese Imperial Customs (for copies of which Kew 
is indebted to Sir Robert Hart), that the export from China for 
the last two years stands as follows t:— 
Quantity. Value: 
1880...... 98,784 piculs, 225,092 Haikwan taels. 
IBS: ..... 57,450  ,, 300,303 » 
1 picul=1333 lb.; 1 Haikwan tael- 5s. 61d. 
With regard to the botanical source of Cassia lignea, it is re- 
markable, considering its ancient history and its present import- 
ance in trade, that up to the present time nothing certain has 
been ascertained. Flückiger and Hanbury remark :—' Although 
it is customary to refer it without hesitation to a tree named 
Cinnamomum Cassia, we find no warrant for such reference: no 
competent observer has visited and described the Cassia-yielding 
districts of China proper, and brought therefrom the specimens 
requisite for ascertaining the botanical origin of the bark " t. 
Bentley and Trimen also remark, in their * Medicinal Plants '$, 
* Pharmacographia, pp. 520, 521. 
t Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports for the year 1881, p. 10. 
tł Pharmacographia, p. 528. $ Vol. iii. sub tab. 223. 
