140 plot's natural HISTOItY. [Book. XII. 



The right of regulating the sale of the cinnamon belongs 

 solely to the king of the Gebanitse, who opens the market for it 

 by public proclamation. The price of it was formerly as much 

 as athousand denarii per pound; which was afterwards increased 

 to half as much again, in consequence, it is said, of the forests 

 having been set on fire by the barbarians, from motives of 

 resentment ; whether this took place through any injustice 

 exercised by those in power, or only by accident, has not been 

 hitherto exactly ascertained. Indeed, we find it stated by 

 some authors, that the south winds that prevail in these parts 

 are sometimes so hot as to set the forests on fire. The Em- 

 peror Yespasianus Augustus was the first to dedicate in the 

 temples of the Capitol and the goddess Peace chaplets of cin- 

 namon inserted in embossed 44 gold. I, myself, once saw in the 

 temple of the Palatium, which his wife Augusta 45 dedicated to 

 her husband the late emperor Augustus, a root of cinnamon 

 of great weight, placed in a patera of gold : from it drops used 

 to distil every year, which congealed in hard grains. It re- 

 mained there until the temple was accidentally destroyed by fire. 



chap. 43. — CASSIA. 



Cassia 46 is a shrub also, which grows not far from the plains 

 where cinnamon is produced, but in the mountainous locali- 

 ties ; the branches of it are, however, considerably thicker- than 

 those of cinnamon. It is covered with a thin skin rather than 

 a bark, and, contrary to what is the case with cinnamon, it 

 is looked upon as the most valuable when the bark falls off 

 and crumbles into small pieces. The shrub is three cubits in 

 height, and the colours which it assumes are threefold : when 

 it first shoots from the ground, for the length of a foot, it is 

 white; after it has attained that height, it is red for half a 

 foot, and beyond that it is black. This last is the part that 

 is held in the highest esteem, and next to it the portion that 

 comes next, the white part being the least valued of all. They 

 cut the ends of the branches to the length of two fingers, and 



44 " Interrasili." Gold partly embossed, and partly left plain, was thus 

 called. 



45 The Empress Livia. 



46 There has been considerable doubt what plant it was that produced 

 the cassia of the ancients. Fee, after diligently enquiring into the subject, 

 inclines to think that it was the Laurus cassia of Linnaeus, the same tree 

 tbat produces the cassia of the present day. 



