30 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
Camphor is a powerful nervous and vascular stimulant; it also acts upon the secretions. It is used in substance, 
in solution with water, and alcohol, and enters into a number of preparations. 
Pirate LXXIV.—Represents the plant in flower, and the fruit. 
CINNAMOMUM ZEYLANICUM. 
NEES. 
THE CINNAMON TREE. 
Laurus CinnamMomumM.—Linneus. 
Sex. Syst.—Enneandria, Monogynia. 
Gen. Cuar.—F lowers hermaphrodite or polygamous, panicled or fascicled, naked. Calyz six-cleft, with the limb 
deciduous. Fertile stamens nine, in three rows; the three inner with two sessile glands at the base. Anthers four- 
celled ; the three inner turned outwards. Three capitate abortive stamens next the centre. Fruit seated in a cup- 
like calyx. Leaves ribbed. (Lindley.) 
Specir. Cuar.—The Cinnamon free is about thirty feet high. The root has the odour of cinnamon as well as 
that of camphor, and yields this principle on distillation. The twigs are somewhat four-cornered, smooth, shining, and 
free from downiness. The /eaves are liable to variation, ovate, or ovate-oblong, terminating in an obtuse point, triple 
or three-nerved, that is, there are three principal nerves, which sometimes remain separate to the very base, but usually 
approach each other a little above the base, but without uniting; there are, moreover, in many cases, two shorter 
nerves external to these. Leaves reticulated on the under side, smooth, shining, the uppermost the smallest, witha 
good deal the taste of cloves. The leaf-buds are naked. Panicles terminal and axillary. Flowers usually bisexual, 
rather silky. Perianth six-cleft, segments oblong, the upper part deciduous. Fertile stamens nine, in three rows; the 
three inner with two sessile glands at the base. Anthers ovate, four-celled, the three interior opening outwards. 
Three abortive capitate stamens (staminodia), in the interior of all. Ovary one-celled, with a single ovule. Stigma 
_ disk-like. Drupe (or berry) one-seeded, seated in the cup-like six-lobed base of the perianth. Seed large, with large 
oily cotyledons. Embryo above. 
The trunk of this tree is irregular and knotted, and covered with thick, rough scabrous bark, which, externally, 
is ash-coloured, internally, reddish. The young shoots are beautifully speckled with dark green, and light orange. 
The native country of the cinnamon tree is the island of Ceylon. It is not a native of the Indian islands, but 
gives place to the cassia tree. Rumphius has remarked, that the trees which ‘yield cinnamon, cassia, and clove bark, 
are hardly ever found in the same countries. Crawford states “that the cinnamon tree has, in recent times, been intro- 
duced into the Indian islands, and grows luxuriantly; but this is not enough; it must grow as cheaply, and of equal 
quality with that of the country which produces it in the highest perfection, to be useful as an article of agricultural 
industry.” Considerable trade is carried on in it from Ceylon. : 
The Dutch at first collected the bark from the plants which were found growing spontaneously in a wild state, 
but from the profit which its collection and exportation yielded, they turned their attention to its cultivation, and since 
the English have gained possession of the island of Ceylon, they have continued its culture. The portions of a 
island where it more especially grows, are the southern and eastern ; it is between Matura and Negambo, in a kind 0 
soil abounding in quartz, called cinnamon fields, that the quality most esteemed is produced; the soil is sandy and 
dry. When this plant is reared in humid vegetable mould, its vegetation is rapid, but the bark is ina corresponding 
degree inferior, being thick, spongy, and little aromatic ; it is to this cause that the little value of a large portion of cin- 
namon introduced into commerce is to be attributed. 7 ote 
In the cultivation of cinnamon, the plants are set out in clusters, or several seeds are sowed in the same vicinity. 
The plantations are without any fixed order, or arrangement; the trees are located among others of a different gerd 
_ The seeds are planted in the month of August, and germination commences on the twenty-first day. The a 
flower in February and March. At the end of six years (Thunburg states three years), they have attained me 
height of seven or eight feet, and may be submitted to the operation of barking; the size of the shrub 1s more regard de 
however, than its age. The young plants should not be cut until their diameter has attained half an inch. Acco 
