CASSIA, 207 
given :—“‘ When the trees are about six years old, the first cut of 
bark is obtained. The season for barking commences in March 
and continues until the end of May, after which the natives say 
the bark loses its aroma and is therefore not removed from the 
trees. The branches, which are about an inch thick, being cut 
to within a few inches of the ground, are carried to houses or 
sheds in the vicinity of the plantations. 
* All the small twigs and leaves being cleared off, a large-bladed 
knife, with the cutting-edge something like the end of a budding- 
knife, is used to make two longitudinal slits, and three or four 
incisions, at sixteen inches apart, round the circumference through 
the bark; the bark is then loosened by passing underneath it a 
kind of slightly curved horn knife with the two edges slightly 
sharpened. Pieces of bark sixteen inches long and half the cir- 
cumference are thus obtained. The bark, after its removal and 
while it is still moist with sap, is then laid with the concave side 
downwards, and a small plane passed over it, removing the epi- 
dermis. After this operation the bark is left to dry for about 
twenty-four hours and then tied up in bundles about 18 inches in 
diameter and sent into the merchants’ houses in the market towns. 
“The leaves which are cleared from the branches that are barked 
are carefully preserved and dried. They afford an oil by distilla- 
tion. A large quantity of leaves are sent to Canton, where I was 
told the operation of distillmg is performed. The twigs are 
removed from the cut branches at the same time as the leaves. 
They are a marketable commodity for native use.” 
The twigs and trimmings of the branches are importedinto Europe 
as “chips” and distilled. In the European markets the Chinese 
Cassia lignea is the most esteemed of all the Cassia-barks, and is 
the one which most nearly approaches to cinnamon in its proper- 
ties, but its substance is thicker, its appearance coarser, its colour 
darker, browner and duller; its flavour, though approaching to 
that of cinnamon, is much less sweet and fine ; it is more pungent 
and followed by a bitter after-taste. The pieces are not uniform 
in size or regular in shape, and are not enclosed one in the other 
like cinnamon. The epidermis has been removed with less care 
than is taken with cinnamon. 
Cinnamomum Cassia is botanically very closely allied to C. ob- 
tusifolium, Nees, which is found on the Khasia Hills in the East 
of Bengal ; the Cassia lignea of this tree is taken to Calcutta for 
