532 LAURACEiE. 



If tin a sections of cassia bark are moistened with a dilute solution 

 of perchloride of iron, the contents of the parenchymatous part of the 

 whole tissue assume a dingy brown colour ; in the outer layers the istareh 

 granules even are coloured. Tannic matter is consequently one of the 

 chief constituents of the bark ; the very cell-walls are also imbued with 

 it. A decoction of the bark is turned blackish green by a persalt of 



iron. 



If cassia bark (or Ceylon cinnamon) is exhausted by cold tvater, the 

 clear liquid becomes turbid on addition of iodine; the same occurs if a 

 concentrated solution of iodide of potassium is added. An abundant 

 precipitate is produced by addition of iodine dissolved in the potassium 

 salt. The colour of iodine then disappears. There is consequently a 

 substance present which unites with iodine; and in fact, if to a 

 decoction of cassia or cinnamon the said solution of iodine is added, it 

 strikes a bright blue coloration, due to starch. But the colour quickly 

 disappears, and becomes permanent only after much of the test has 

 been added. We have not ascertained the nature of the substance that 

 thus modifies the action of iodine: it can hardly be tannic matter, as 

 we have found the reaction to be the same when we used bark that 

 had been previously repeatedly treated with spirit of wine and then 

 several times with boilinor ether. 



The mucilage contained in the gum-cells of the thinner quills of 



cassia is easily dissolved by cold water, and may be precipitated together 



with tannin by neutral acetate of lead, but not by alcohol. In the 



thicker barks it appears less soluble, merely swelling into a slimy 



jelly. 



omm 



and increasing 



:e — Cassia lignea is exported from Canton in enormous 

 g quantities. The shipments which in 1864 amounted to 



13,800 peculs, reached 40,600 in 18G9,* 61,220 in 1871, and 76, 

 peculs (10,195,200 lb.) value £267,703, in 1872.^ In 1874 the exports 

 were 54,268 peculs (1 pecul = U^ lb.) and 58,313 peculs in 1878; 

 from the other ports of China cassia is not shipped to any extent^ 

 England usually receives no more than about 1,000,000 lb. of cassia, of . 

 which only 40,000 lb. appear to be consumed in the country. Hamburg 

 imports about 2,000,000 lb. annually immediately from China. Yet m 

 1878 the quantity imported into London was 20,744 peculs (3,500,000 

 lb.), that received at Hamburg 13,548 peculs. 



Cassia lignea is exported in chests containing 2 peculs each. 



Oil of cassia was ship[)ed from the south of China to the United 

 Kingdom, to the extent in 1809 of 47,517 lb.; in 1870, of 28,389 lb. 

 Hamburg is also a very important place for this oil; in the official 

 statistics of that port for 1875 the imports from China are stated to 

 have amounted to 30,000 lb., besides 10,000 lb. imported from Great 

 Britain; in 1876 Hamburg imported 5,900 lb. from China and 1/,^" 

 lb, fzom England. 



Uses— The same as those of cinnamon. 



1 Canton Trade lieporC for 1860. 3 Annual Statement of /^'V-^l',t T'" 



. ^.'""■'^'^^'^if^^Jieportsfromll.M.Comuh Kavhjatlon of the United lunridov 



mC/u«a presented to Parliament 1873,— 1J>70. 290.— 6G,G50 were exported m 



(Consul Robertson). f^-om PakhoL 





