THE SCRIPTURE ON THE BUDDING OF PLANTS. 421 



12 So, man lieth down, and riseth not: 



Till the heavens be no more they shall not awake, 

 Nor be raised out of their sleep.* 



Among the treasures of the East, which might prove 

 a valuable adjunct to the productions of the Desert 

 Zone, under intelligent management, in some places is 

 the cinnamon tree (Cinnamonum Zeylanicum). This 

 tree is of the laurel family and was called the " Cinna- 

 mon laurel" by Linnaeus, and it is one of those plants 

 which seem to flourish best in pure sand: in the richer 

 soils, the aroma does not seem to develop itself in the 

 same concentrated form. The best cinnamon is ob- 

 tained from suckers, which spring up (just in the way 

 described in the scriptural narrative), like hazel rods 

 from the stools of old bushes which have been cut 

 down. Mr. P. L. Simmonds, on visiting the cinnamon 

 gardens in Ceylon, states that he was much struck 

 with the curious fact of these trees flourishing in such 

 situations, and says 



" the circumstance impressed me very strongly : it seems so 

 strange to see a plain of pure sand, whitened in the sun, yet 

 covered with a luxuriant growth of trees. These plantations 

 may well suggest a doubt as to the truth of the proposition, 

 that earth, destitute of organic matter, cannot sustain vege- 

 tation: certainly it is not organic matter which supports the 

 cinnamon trees of Colombo." f 



We can fully confirm Mr. Simmonds' account as to 

 this, from our own personal observations. There are 

 large tracts of cinnamon bush close to the City. The 



* Job xiv, verses 7 12 inclusive. [N.B. Originally this "Book" (as 

 we call it) was written as a poem], 



j- The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom, by P. L. 

 Simmonds, 1854, pp. 385 6. 



