CH. VI ] SPICES 83 



zeylanicum) would form a small tree, but in cultivation it is 

 kept coppiced, sending up long willowy shoots, whose bark, 

 peeled off and dried and rolled into quills, forms the spice of 

 commerce. The cinnamon peelers form a separate caste among 

 the Sinhalese. The finer quills are made up into bales, while 

 an inferior grade is shipped under the name " chips." 



A considerable quantity of cinnamon oil is distilled in the 

 island from broken quills and larger fragments of bark. 

 Another oil, with something of the smell of oil of cloves, is 

 distilled from the leaves, but only rarely, while camphor is 

 obtained from the roots. 



Cinnamon is used mainly in confectionery, incense, etc. A 

 considerable proportion of the exported chips are used in 

 Europe for the distillation of oil. The Seychelles are now 

 producing a good deal of oil. The Ceylon exports in recent 

 years have been : 



1911 51,086 cwt. 



1920 34,846 



The cultivation and harvesting of cinnamon being very simple, 

 and Ceylon having a practical monopoly of the trade, which is 

 no longer seriously increasing, it is somewhat difficult to make 

 any recommendations for the improvement of this cultivation. 

 Green manuring may probably prove of considerable use, and 

 more careful planting and cultivation are required. A careful 

 study of the formation of the oil and its best method of dis- 

 tillation are also needed. It would seem, on the face of it, rather 

 absurd that so much oil should have to be made in Europe, and 

 that all the labour of making up the chips should in a sense be 

 wasted. It is quite possible that oil may be profitably obtained 

 from the green twigs. 



Pepper. This was the great staple of the spice trade of 

 the Middle Ages, and was then exported solely from Malabar. 

 Five ships a year were loaded with it in the days of Portuguese 

 supremacy. Gradually the cultivation in India (and Ceylon) 

 died away, and the Straits Settlements took the chief place. At 



62 



