1921 HOUTUS JAMAICENS'lS: cinnamon^ 



the greatest abundance. It is cut into thin shccs, and exposed to thr ?tia, and curls 

 up ill drying. The old trees produce a. coarse kind of cinnamon. V. iien tlie trunk 

 Ijias been stripped 01 it bark, it receives no lurther nonrishnient; hut th root is still 

 alive, and eontiunes to throw out fresh shoots. Its seed, wlien boiled in water, yielJs 

 an oil whicti swims at top and lakes fire' If left to cool, it hardens into a white sub- 

 stance, of wi'ich candles are made, which liave an agreeable smell, and are reserved 

 for the use of ibelCmg oT Ceylon. The cinnaiT)on js not reckoned excellent unless it 

 be fine, smooth, brittle, thin, of a yellow colour, inclining to red ; fragrant, aromatic, 

 and of a poignant yet a^'reeable taste. The connoisseurs give the preference to that, 

 the pieces of vvhicli are long but slender. Cninamon is a very elegant and useful aro- 

 matic, more grateful both to^he palate and stomach, than most other substances of tliis 

 class. By its astringent quality it likewise -con-ol^orates the viscera, and proves of great 

 service in several kinds of alvine fluxes, and immoderate discharges from the uterus. 



Tiie cinnamon is a native of Ceyioi). Some trees were introduced into this island 

 l)y Admiral lipdney, whu captured them with other valuable plants in a French ship. 

 One vvas planted in Mr. East's Garden, and another in the Bo'tanic Garden^ in St. 

 Thomas in the East. From these parent trees many hundrx5^s of joaiig trees have been 

 produced, and now thrivein alnjost.every part of theJsland. 



Dr. Dancer gives the following aecount of the cinnashon trees, growing in this island^ 

 in the eigluii volume of the Transactions of the Society of Arts : 



" The cinnamon t!-ees of this island have been raised from a few plants taken, along' 

 tvitli a large collection of other oriental exotics, in a French ship, bound from the Isle 

 of France to Hispaniola, and presented to the Botanic Garden by Lord Rodney, whea. 

 he came down here, alter his glorious victory of the !2th of Apfil, 1782 Upon com- 

 paring the parts of the tree with the description and figure given by Burman and other 

 botanists, it appears to be the real Ceylon cinnamon, and of the best kind, called by 

 the natives rassc coionclc.i but the specimens of bark taken put it out of all doubt, be- 

 ing, in the opinion of the best judges, of an equal if notsuperior <jui-lity to any im- 

 ported from India. 



" The various and important uses to nhich tiie several parts of the plant are applied^ 

 make it an invaluable acquisition to the West India colonies ; and there can i)e no im- 

 pediment, except an impolitic prohibition, to its becoming an article of general culti- 

 vation, and of the most jucralive commerce. None of the botanical writers, whom I 

 have had an opportunity of consulting, ^ay much of the cultivation -or proy)agation of 

 the cinnamon ; and we have hardly had time to make sufhcient observations on the sub- 

 ject of eitner ; but, for the inf )rination 'of the pul)iic, to whom it is a matter of some- 

 importance, I shall venture the few remarks winch my own short experience enables' 

 me to offer. 



" The cinnamon plant, though, (according to the account of travellers,) it grows 

 to the height of twenty or thirty feet is, properly speaking, an arborescent one, and 

 not a tree of the common kind ; it puts out numerous side brandies, with a dense fo- 

 liage, from the very bottom of the trunk ; which furnishes an opportunity of obtaining 

 a plenty of layers, and facilitates the pnipagation of the tree, as it iocs not perfect its 

 seeds in any qnantity under six or seven years, wnen it becomes so plentifully loaded, 

 that a single tree is sufficient almost for a colony. It seems to delight in a loose moist 

 soil, and to require a soutKern aspect; the trees thus planted, flourishing better than 

 Utiier.s growing in a loam, and not so well exposed to the sun. Wheu healthy, it i^, 



(froBx 



