NATURAL HISTORY. 



329 



when its shoots are cut, and the 

 young scions only permitted to 

 remain, the plant becomes Ipss, 

 and less able to resist the en- 

 croachments of the surrounding 

 underwood, by which means it not 

 unfrequently becomes choaked and 

 overgrown. 



Another, and not an unimport- 

 ant concern, demands the attention 

 of government — the collection and 

 preparation of the receptacle of 

 the embryo seed of the cinnamon 

 plant, the casia bud of commerce. 

 The full grown trees of the interior 

 will afford them in great abun- 

 dance. They are frequently sub- 

 stituted for the more expensive 

 cinnamon, and fetch a good price. 



The collection of them in Cey- 

 lon might be extensive, and effected 

 at a very small expense. Labour, 

 which is all that is required, is 

 cheap. They could be collected 

 by boys : and the drying, sorting, 

 &c. of them might be entrusted to 

 females. We might soon be able 

 to rival the Chinese monopoly of 

 this article. The Dutch, however 

 eager they were to extend the 

 exportation of colonial produce, 

 seem to have entirely neglected 

 the preparation of this important 

 article of trade. Indeed I have 

 not been able to learn that they 

 were aware of the fact that casia 

 buds are the produce of the cin- 

 namon plant. The native head- 

 men now employed in the cinna- 

 mon department, and who were 

 in the same situation under the 

 Dutch, express their entire igno- 

 rance of the circumstance. 



In the London New Price Cur- 

 rent of Jan. 10, 181.5, casia buds 

 are quoted at from 32/. to .37/. per 

 cwt.or from about 5s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. 

 per lb. The profit upon this nr- 



VoL. LIX. 



tide might be considerable. Tha 

 more carefully and extensively 

 we consider the subject, we shall, 

 I think, be the more convinced 

 that we must trust chiefly to the 

 plantations for cinnamon of the 

 finest quality, and that notwith- 

 standing the recent important 

 acquisition of the interior of the 

 island, we should prosecute the 

 cultivation of cinnamon with un- 

 abated zeal and perseverance. 



ON THE GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE. 



By W. Scoresbyjun. M.W.S. 



[From Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural 

 History Society.] 



Greenland is a country where 

 every object is strikingly singular, 

 or higlily magnificent. The at- 

 mosphere, the land, and the ocean, 

 each exhibit remaikableor sublime 

 appearances. 



With regard to the atmosphere, 

 several peculiarities may be no- 

 ticed, viz. its darkness of colour 

 and density ; its frequent produc- 

 tion of crystallised snow in a won- 

 derful perfection and variety of 

 form and texture; and its asto- 

 nishing sudden changes from calm 

 to storm, — from fair weather to 

 foul, and vice veraS. 



The land is of itself a sublime 

 object ; its stupendous mountains 

 rising by steep acclivities from the 

 very margin of the ocean to an 

 immense height, terminating in 

 ridged, conical, or pyramidal sum- 

 mits ; its surface, contrasting its 

 native protruding dark-coloured 

 rocks, with its burthen of purest 

 snow ; the whole viewed under 

 the density of a gloomy sky, forms 

 a j)icture impressive and grand. 

 Its most remarkable inhabitant is 

 the White or Polar Bear, which 



2 M indeed 



