.168 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



burg large-rooted and of the red Italian sorts. The variegated chicory, the curled-leaved 

 and the broad-leaved may have their prototypes in nature if sought for but at present 

 must remain unexplained. The common, the spotted-leaved and the large-rooted were 

 in French culture in 1826.' 



Cinnamomum cassia Blume. Laurineae. cassia, cinnamon. 



China, Stmiatra, Ceylon and other parts of eastern Asia. This plant yields a cinnamon 

 of commerce. Cinnamon seems to have been known to the ancient natives inhabitating 

 the covintries bordering on the Levant. It is the kinnamomon of Herodotus, a name 

 which he states the Greeks learned from the Phoenicians. It is spoken of in Exodus, 

 is referred to by Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Pliny and others of the ancient writers. The 

 inner bark of the shoots is the portion used. Nearly every species of the genus yields 

 its bark to commerce, including not less than six species on the Malabar coast and in 

 Ceylon, and nearly twice as many more in the eastern part of Asia and in the islands of 

 the Eastern Archipelago. Cassia bark resembles the true cinnamon but is thicker, coarser 

 and not as delicately flavored. Both are used for flavoring confectionery and in cooking. 



C. culilawan Blimie. 



Malays, China, Moluccas and Cochin China. The bark of this species is said to 

 have the flavor of cloves and is used as a condiment. 



C. iners Reinw. 



Burma, Malays, tropical Hindustan and Siam. In India, the natives use the bark 

 as a condiment in their cturies. In southern India, the more mature fruits are collected 

 for use but are very inferior to the Chinese cassia buds.^ Among the Ghauts, the bark 

 is put in curries as a spice.' 



C. loureirii Nees. 



Cochin China and Japan. From the bark of this plant is made a cinnamon of which 

 the finest kind is superior to that of Ceylon. 



G. nitidum Blume. 



Java, Ceylon and India. This plant furnishes a spice. 



C. sintok Blume. 



Malays and Java. The plant possesses an aromatic bark. 



C. tamala T. Nees & Eberm. 



Himalayan region. This plant furnishes leaves that are essential ingredients in 

 Indian cookery.'* 



C. zeylanicum Nees. cinnamon. 



East Indies and Malays. This plant is largely cultivated in Ceylon for its bark. 

 Its cultivation is said to have commenced about 1770, but the plant was known in a wild 



> Petit Dia. Jard. 1826. 



Fliickiger and Hanbury Pharm. 480. 1879. 



> Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 394. 1879. 



* Dutt, U. C. Mat. Med. Hindus 224. 1877. 



