ORIGIN OF CASSIA LIGNEA. 23 
trees: many natives were asked if it was ever used; but, with 
one exception, all denied that it afforded any Cassia-bark. The 
one exception was an old woman, who was cultivating a field 
of Indian corn close to a few small trees of Cinnamomum Bur- 
mannt, and who said that its bark was sometimes, but rarely, 
used to adulterate the true Cassia-bark." 
Mr. Ford on his return journey paid a visit to the well-known 
Chinese botanist, Dr. Hance, H.M. Vice-Consul at Whampoa, 
who identified the specimens of the Cassia lignea tree collected 
by Mr. Ford as belonging to Cinnamomum Cassia. There is, in 
fact, in the Kew Herbarium a specimen of the same species col- 
lected by Dr. Hance in 1876; but I have searched in vain to 
see if Dr. Hance has published any thing about it, and the speci- 
men bears no note that it is the source of Cassia lignea. This 
specimen is the material upon which the plate given by Bentley 
and Trimen is based, and represents no doubt the true plant. 
Cinnamomum Cassia was first described by Blume in 1825 *. 
The species was apparently founded on cultivated specimens from 
Java, where Blume states it was “ ex China introductum." 
The Kew Herbarium possesses a cultivated Java specimen con- 
tributed by the Leyden Herbarium. This is no doubt an authentic 
type of the plant described by Blume; and Professor Oliver finds 
that it agrees precisely with the plant collected by Mr. Ford on 
the West River. lt may be therefore considered finally settled, 
on the one hand, that the Chinese Cassia lignea plant is really the 
Cinnamomum Cassia, Blume, and, on the other hand, that the plant 
cultivated in Java is identical with that now known to be the 
source of the spice in China. 
It is remarkable that though the cultivation of the Cassia lignea 
iree has apparently been carried on in Southern China from time 
immemorial it does not appear to be indigenous there f. In 
Cochin-China, however, there appears to be some probability of 
its being really wild. Cinnamomum Cassia is, botanically, very 
closely allied to C. obtusifolium, Nees, one of the species from 
which a similar product is obtained on the Khasia hills. 
It only remains to give Mr. Ford's account of the mode of 
collecting and preparing the bark. He obtained and sent to this 
* ‘ Bijdragen Fl. Nederl. Indië,’ ii. p. 570. 
t The earliest printed notice in works professing to give botanical informa- 
tion about China appears to be in Martini's ‘ Atlas Sinensis’(1655). See Bret- 
schneider's ‘ Early European Researches into the Flora of China,’ p. 13. 
