CORTEX CINNAMOMI. 



o-2i 



production of the far East is moreover iin])lied by the rnxmeDarchini 



r^,.^,v, ^7/,.. ^,r.-,r^r^ nv Itt vlr n T1 . 1 flliUt) niiinpsfil o-jvpn to it bv the 



(from dar, wood or bark, and Chhii, Chinese) given to it by th 



Arabians and Persians. 



If this view of the case is admissible, we must regard the ancient 

 cinnamon to have been the substance now known as Cldvr^e Cassia 

 lignea or Chinese Cinnamon, and cassia as one of the thicker and 

 perhaps less aromatic barks of the same group, such in fact as arc still 



found in commerce. 



Of the circumstances which led to the collection of cinnamon in 

 Ceylon, and of the period at which it was commenced, notlnug is 

 known. That the Chinese were concerned in the discovery is not an 

 unreasonable supposition, seeing that they traded to Ceylon, and were 

 in all probability acquainted Avith the cassia-yielding species of Cin- 

 namomum of Southern China, a tree extremely hke the cinnamon 



tree of Ceylon. 



Whatever may be the facts, the early notices of cinnamon as a pro- 

 duction of Ceylon are not prior to the 13th century. The very first, 

 according to Yule,' is a mention of the spice by Kazwini, an Arab 

 writer of about A.D. 1275, very soon after which period it is noticed by 

 the historian of the Egyptian Sultan Kelaoun, A.D. 1283. Tlie prince ot 

 Ceylon is stated to have sent an ambassador, Al-Hadj-Abu-Othman, to 

 the Sultan's court. It was mentioned that Ceylon produced elephants, 

 Bakam (the wood of Gwsalpinia Sapan L.— see page 216), pearls and 



also cinnamon.^ 



India di sopra," and still extant in the Medicean library at 1^ brence, 

 savs that the cinnamon tree is of medium bulk, and m trunk, barK 

 and foliage, like a laurel, and that great store of its bark is carried tortli 

 from the island which is near by Malabar." -p . ^ 



Again, it is mentioned by the Mahomedan traveller Ibn^atuta 

 about A.D. 1340/ and a century later by the Venetian merchant ^sicolo 

 di Conti, whose description of the tree is very correct." 



The circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope led to tne real dis- 

 covery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1505, and to then- permanent 

 occupation of the island in 1536, chiefly for the sake of the^^'f/";?"; 

 It is from the first of these dates that more exact accounts ot the spice 

 began to reach Europe. Thus in 1511 Barbosa distinguished the hue 

 cinnamon of Ceylon from the inferior Canella trida ^^^^^l''^^ ^^^^^^ 

 Je Orta, about the middle of the same century, stated that Co> on cmna 



ar as that of Malabar. Clusius, the tianslatcn 



nion "vvas forty times as dear 



apparently at Calicut, wliere the Portu- 

 guese found it ou their first arrival. Here, 

 ^aya :Marco, the shijjs frojn Aden obtained 

 their lading from the East, and carded it 

 ;nto the Red Sea for Alexandria, whence 

 It passed into Europe by means of the 

 Venetians.— See also Yule, Boole of Ser 

 Marco Polo, ii. (1871) 325. 327- 



' ^^«^co Polo, ii. 255. 



" Qnatrenicre (in the book quoted at 

 page 511, note 4), ii. 284. 



3 Yule, Cathnu and the iva !/ tJdiher, i.213, 

 ilsn Kunstmann, -^«5f <;/«=« k^' 

 AkaLue, -U and 25 December I800. p. IC, 



'■"'iVw-./. of Jhn BatHta, translated by 



Vkmh i- (l.'5G3)33a; Kunstmann Kemf 

 ]8G4. 39. 



