Dr. R. Wight on the Laurus Cassia of lAnnaeus, 185 



pean markets under the name of Cassia, though it has nothing 

 whatever to do with the Laurus Cassia of Linnaeus, which, 

 from the preceding history appears strictly confined to Ceylon 

 and India proper, and that name, not being referable to any 

 one species, ought unquestionably to be expunged from bota- 

 nical nomenclature, its longer continuance there only tending 

 to create confusion and uncertainty. This brings me to the 

 next question — namely, what plant or plants yield the Cassia 

 bark of commerce ? 



The foregoing explanation, in the course of which two 

 plants are referred to as yielding Cassia, greatly simplifies the 

 answer to this one. The first of these is the Malabar Carua 

 figured by Rheede, the second Nees's Cinnamomum aromati- 

 cum. The list, however, of Cassia-producing plants is not li- 

 mited to these two, but I firmly believe extends to nearly every 

 species of the genus. A set of specimens, submitted for my 

 examination, of the trees furnishing Cassia on the Malabar 

 Coast, presented no fewer than four distinct species ; inclu- 

 ding among them the genuine cinnamon plant, the bark of the 

 older branches of which, it would appear, is exported from that 

 coast as Cassia. Three or four more species are natives of 

 Ceylon, exclusive of the cinnamon proper, all of which greatly 

 resemble the cinnamon plant, and in the woods might easily 

 be mistaken for it and peeled, though the produce might be 

 inferior. Thus we have from Western India and Ceylon alone, 

 probably not less than six plants producing Cassia ; add to 

 these nearly twice as many more species of Cinnamomum, the 

 produce of the more Eastern States of Asia and the Islands of 

 the Eastern Archipelago, all remarkable for their striking fa- 

 mily likeness, all I believe endowed with aromatic properties, 

 and probably the greater part if not the whole contributing 

 something towards the general result, and we at once see the 

 impossibility of awarding to any one individual species the 

 credit of being the source whence the Cassia lignea of com- 

 merce is derived ; and equally the impropriety of applying to 

 any one of them the comprehensive specific appellation of 

 Cassia, since all sorts of cinnamon-like plants, yielding bark 

 of a quality unfit to bear the designation of cinnamon in the 

 market, are passed off as Cassia. 



