CAROLUS LINN^US 61 



of the leaves and flowers of a certain oriental 

 tree. The bark of this kind of tree had been 

 known in Europe as a commercial importa- 

 tion for I think some 2000 years. They called 

 it cinnamon. As a generic type the tree had 

 been named in Latin Cinnamomum. The 

 professor gave Linnaeus the information that 

 these were the leaves and flowers of the cin- 

 namon tree; but what were the natural 

 affinities of the tree? Had it consanguinity 

 with any other known tree? To what was it 

 related? These were questions which not the 

 most expert botanists could answer. The fruit 

 of the tree was not yet known, and therefore 

 could not be appealed to. The flowers were 

 small and insignificant. LinnaBus took one 

 of those small dried-up flowers, subjected it to 

 moisture, so that he could get a view of the 

 anthers without breaking them, then, looking 

 at these alone, was able to answer, with the 

 most perfect assurance, that this cinnamon 

 tree is a very near relative of the familiar 

 sweet bay of southern Europe, a species of the 

 genus Laurus. The man's frequent solving of 

 enigmas like this, in the presence of the most 

 learned and capable botanists of the world, 

 brought it to pass that he was spoken of every- 

 where among the Germans and Flemish as the 



