LAURACE^;.* 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 200. 



CINNAMOMUM. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous, panicled or fascicled, 

 naked. Calyx 6-cleft ; with the limb deciduous. Fertile sta- 

 mens 9, in 3 rows ; the 3 inner with 2 sessile glands at the base ; 

 anthers 4-celled, the 3 inner turned outwards. Three capitate 

 abortive stamens next the centre. Fruit seated in a cup-like 

 calyx. Leaves ribbed. Leaf buds not scaly. 



%* No question was ever more vexed with doubts and difficulties 

 than that which relates to the trees producing the different kinds of 

 Cinnamon. I follow the elaborate paper of Dr. Blume, as being the 

 newest as well as the most complete account of these trees, so far as he 

 has examined them. 



673. C. zeylanicum Nees Laur. 45. Nees and Eberm. handb. 

 ii. 420. Laurus Cinnamomum Linn. sp. pi. 528. L. Cassia 

 Bot. Mag. t. 1636. C. nitidum Nees laurin. 43. not Hooker. 

 Ceylon, Java ; cultivated in many parts of both the new and old 

 world. 



Branches somewhat 4-cornered, smooth. Leaves ovate or ovate- 

 oblong, tapering into an obtuse point, triple-nerved or 3-nerved, 

 reticulated on the under side, smooth, the uppermost the smallest. 

 Panicles terminal and axillary, stalked. Flowers hoary and silky; 

 segments oblong, deciduous in the middle. This is the true Ceylon 

 Cinnamon, furnishing bark of the best quality. It varies, however, 

 according to the season of the year when it is collected. It is the 

 plant usually called Laurus Cassia in the gardens, where also it is some- 

 times found under the name of Laurus Cinnamomum and Cinnamomum 

 aromaticum. 



674. C. zeylanicum, var. Cassia Nees Laurin. 47. Laurus 

 Cassia Linn. syst. nat. ed. Hall. a. 1760. p. 1010. Cassia lignea 

 Blackw. herb. t. 391. Apparently naturalised on the continent 

 of India. 



Leaves oblong or elliptical much tapering to the point, acute at the 

 base ; otherwise the same as C. zeylanicum. Nees v. Esenbeck re- 

 gards this, the plant that produces the Cassia lignea, as a degenerate 

 variety of C. zeylanicum, palmed off upon foreigners as true Cinnamon 

 by the Dutch when they held Ceylon, and thus carried to the continent 

 of India, where it has naturalised itself. 



* The characters of almost all the plants of this order are taken from the excellent 

 Systema Laurinarum of the President C. G. Nees von Esenbeck. 



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