CA>'ELLACEiE, 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



37 



OANELLA ALBA. 



Cinnamon Bark. White Wood. Wild Cinnamon, 



Canella alba, Murray, Linn. Syst. ed. 14, iv. 443. — Swartz, 

 Ohs. 190; Trans. Linn. Soc. i. 96, t. 8. — "WiUdenow, 

 Spec, ii- 851. — Titford, JTort. Bot. Am. Siippl. ilL t. 10, 



f_ 4_ De CaiidoUe, Prodr. i. 563. — Descourtilz, Fl. Med. 



Antil. viii. 229, t. 568. — Hayne, Arsen. 9, t. 5. — Ste- 

 venson & Churchill, Med. Sot. ii. t. 66. — Woodville, 3Ied. 

 Bot. iv. 694, t. 234. — Lindley, Med. Bot. 116. — Carson, 

 Med. Bot. i. 24, t. 16. — Griffith, Med. Bot. 181, f . 98. — 

 A. Richard, Fl. Cub. 248. — Dietrich, Syn. iv. 811. — 

 Micrs, Contrib. I 116, t. 23, A. — Griscbach, Fl. Brit. W. 



Ind. 109. — Chapman, FL 43. — Guiboart, Ilist. Brag. 

 ed. 7, iii. 621, £. 767. — Bentley & Trimeu, Med. Fl. I 

 26, t. 26. — BaiUon, Hist. FL i. 164, f. 211-215. — Sar- 

 gent, Forest Trees JV. A?)i. 10th Ce7isus U. S. ix. 24. 



Laurus Winterana, Linnceus, S^ec. 371. 



Winterania Canella, Linnjeus, Sj}ec. ed. 2, 636. — Pou'et, 

 Lam. Diet. Suppl.' iii. 799, t. 399. 



0. Winterana, Giertner, Fruct. i. 377, t. 77. 



C. laurifolia, Loddiges, Cat. — Sweet, Sort. Brit. 65. — 

 Don, Gen. Syst. i. 679. 



Cmiella alha attains in Florida a height of twenty-five to thirty feet, with a straight trunk eight 

 or ten inches in diameter. On the mountains of Jamaica it is said to grow sometimes to the height of 

 fifty feet. The principal branches are slender, horizontal and spreading, fonuuig a compact round- 

 headed top. The bark of the trunk is an eighth of an inch thick, light gray, the surface broken into 

 many short thick scales rarely more than two to three inches long, and about twice the thickness of the 

 pale yellow aromatic inner bark. The leaves are obovate, round or slightly emarginate at the apex, and 

 contracted into a short stout grooved petiole ; they are three and a half to five inches long, an inch and 

 a half to two inches broad, bright deep green, and lustrous. The flowers open in the autumn, and the 

 fruit ripens in March and April, when it is bright crunson, soft and fleshy, and is devoured by many 



birds. 



Canella alha is widely distributed, and not uncommon on the Florida keys, where it was first 



discovered by Dr. J. L. Blodgett. It generaUy grows under the shade of krger trees in dense forests 

 composed of Sideroxylon, Lysdoma, Swietenia, Bursera, Hypelate, DiphoHs, and Nectandra. 



Canella alha was one of the first American trees to attract the attention of Europeans,^ and it is 

 mentioned in the accounts of many of the early voyages to America.' 



1 Cinnamodendron corticosum (Miers, Contrib. i. 121, t. 24), a 

 small tree of the mountain forests of Jamaica, of the same family 

 and with the same properties, was doubtless confounded with the 

 true Canella in the early accounts of that island. The bark of the 

 two trees Is not distinguished commercially, and the pharmaceutical 

 descriptions of Canella bark published prior to 1528 cover in some 

 cases at least the bark of Canella and of Cinnamodendron. (Fluck- 

 iger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 19.) 



3 " AUi hallamos un arbol, cuya hoja tenia el mas fino olor de cla- 

 vos que nunea vi, y era como laurel, salvo que no era ansi grande ; 

 yo ansi pienso que era laurel su especie." La carta del Doctor 

 Chanca, que escribio a la Ciudad de Sevilla. Segunda viage de Co- 

 lon, 1493. (Select Letters of Christopher Columbus relating to four 

 voyages to the New World, Major's ed. 23.) 



"Aleuni alberi che nel sapore & odore parevano di Cannella." 

 Fernando Colombo, Hist, fob 96, and " Alberi di Cannella selvatica," 

 fob 104. 



Cinamomum sive Canella Peruana, C. Bauhin, Pinax, 409. — 



Ray, Hist. PL ii. 1563. 



" There hath beene Cinnamon and something else given me as 

 fruits of the islands." (Layfleld in Purchas his Pilgrimes, 1174.) 



De Arborihus, Jucaia;, Nieremberg, Hist. Nat. 294. 



De Cassia Lignea, Cinnamomo, seu Canella, Francisco Hernan- 



dez, Nov. PI. Hist. (ed. Koma, 1651), lib. ii. cap. 11 ; De Caninga 

 arhore, lib. ii. cap. 25 (and Ximencs, Spanish ed. Mexico, 1615). 



De la Canella de nuestras Indias, Nicolas Monardes, Hist. Med. 



Sevilla, 1574, fob 98. 



"Ex concisis arboribus, cinamomi forma." (Feter Martyr, Dec- 

 ades, dec. i. 7.) 



"They suppose to be the Cinnamon-tree." (The Hisiorie of the 



West Indies, 77. English ed. of Peter Martyr's Dtcades.) 

 « Bois de Canelle," Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Antilles de 



I'Amerique, 80. 



Canella alba Clusii, Jonston, Dendrographias, 1G6. 



Canella Americana, Cubana, Jonston, Hist. Nat. Arh. (ed. Ecke- 



brecht), i. 170. 



" De la Canelle qui se trouve dans la grande tcrre de la Guade- 

 loupe." (Du Tertre, Hist. Gen. Antil. ii. 145.) 



Cassia Cinamomea, s. Cinamomum syhestre Barhadensium Arbor 

 haccifera fructu cahjculato tetrapyreno, folio enervi, Plukenet, Aim. 



Bot. 89, t. 160, f. 7. 



Cassia lignea Jamaicensis, Laureolm foliis subcinere^, cortice Pipe- 



ris modo acri, Flukenet, Aim. Bot.89, t. 81, f. 1. 



Cassia lignea Laurifolia, Americana, cortice albo, valde acn et 



aromatico, Flukenet, Aim. Bot. 89. 



Arbor bacdfera laurifolia aromatica, Sloane, PhiL Trans, xvu. 



