Dr Wight OH the Lauras Cassia of Lmnceas. 21 



world, is a thicker and coarser portion of the bark of the ge- 

 nuine cinnamon plant or tree, or whether it is the bark of a 

 plant not analogous to the cinnamon plant or tree." 



Before it was possible to return a satisfactory answer to 

 this question, it seemed incumbent on me to ascertain what 

 plant Linnteus meant to, designate under the name of Laurus 

 Cassia, and whether it was probable the plant so called could 

 supply all the bark passing under that name in the markets 

 of the world. This primary but most diflicult inquiry was 

 rendered indispensable by the generally supposed ridiculous 

 assertion of Mr Marshall, that the leaves, and the bark of the 

 ti'unk and branches of the Laurus Cassia of Linnaeus, so far 

 from being aromatic and spicy like cinnamon, are bitter, and 

 have in u slight degree the taste and odour of myrrh. This 

 assertion, wide as it may appear of the truth, is yet founded 

 in fact, and what may appear still more extraordinary, has 

 led to a discovery, which, without such aid as he has given, 

 would not probably have soon been made by a professed bo- 

 tanist, a title to which I believe Mr Marshall does not aspire. 

 He appears to have been led to a discovery, simply through 

 the native name, and wonders liow it could have received from 

 Linnaeus the name of Cassia, and had qualities attributed to its 

 bark which it does not in the slightest degree possess. I 

 think I can now answer the question, and explain the mystery 

 which has so long hung on this species, and been hitherto 

 rendered only more obscure by each attempt to bring it to 

 light. It is well known to modern botanists, that many of 

 their earlier predecessors were but indifferent describers of 

 pumts, and often very loose m their (juotations of figures as 

 synonyms, a sin of which Linnaeus was often about as guilty 

 as any of his contemporaries. He seemed to have had an 

 idea, that their figures were gej^erally at best but approxima- 

 tions to the truth, and that if a figure exhibited even a re- 

 mote similarity to a plant before him, especially if, from the 

 same country, he might with safety ijuote it as a synonym. 

 Bearing this in mind, we can easily account for a number of 

 errors to which his incorrect synonyms have given x'ise. The 

 j^resent instance affords an excellent example of what I liave 

 liere stated, and wliich, but for tlie discovery of Mr Mar- 



