120 NUTRITIVE PLANTS. 



younger branches, and after dividing, produce the flowers in a kind 

 of paniculated umbel. The petals are six, oval, pointed, concave, 

 spreading, of a greenish white or yellowish colour, and the three 

 outermost are broader than the others , the filaments are nine, 

 shorter than the corolla, flattish, erect, standing in ternaries, and, at 

 the base of the three innermost, two small round glands are placed ; 

 the antherae are double, and unite over the top of the filament ; 

 the germen is oblong, the style simple, of the length of the stamina, 

 and the stigma is depressed and triangular : the fruit is a pulpy 

 pericarpium, resembling a small olive, of a deep blue colour in- 

 serted in the corolla, and containing an oblong nut. 



The true cinnamon-tree is a native of Ceylon, where, according 

 to Ray, it grows as common in the woods and hedges as the hazel 

 with us, and is used by the Ceylonese for fuel and other domestic 

 purposes. Its cultivation was first attempted in this country about 

 the year 1768 by Mr. Philip Miller, who observes, " that the cin- 

 namon and camphire trees are very near akin," and that if the 

 berries of these trees were procured from the places of their growth, 

 :\nd planted in tubs of earth, the plants might be more easily reared 

 than by layers, which require two years or more before they take 

 root. We wish, however, to caution those who make the trial, to 

 plant this fruit immediately upon being obtained from the tree ; for 

 Jacquin remarks, " Cseterum ad sationem transportari semina ne. 

 queunt, quum paucos intra dies nuclei corrumpantur, atque effoeti 

 evadant *. Ray seems to think that the cassia cinnamomea of 

 Herman, the cassia lignea, and the cassia fistula of the ancient 

 Greek writers, were the same, or varieties of the same species of 

 plant +. But an inquiry of more importance is, whether the cinna- 



* Jacquin's Amcric. At Ceylon ** it is particularly owing to a certain kind 

 of wild doves, which, from their feeding on the fruit of the cinnamon-tree, they 

 call cinnamon-eaters* that these trees grow so plentifully in this island." A 

 Seha Phil. Trans, vol. xxxvi. p. 105. 



+ It is necessary to observe, that the ancient signification of these Barnes is 

 very different from the modern. The younger branches of the tree, with their 

 bark covering them, were called by the Greek writers xiwa/ww/uoy, cinnamomum, 

 and sometimes EuXoKao-U, or cassia rignea ; but when they were divested of 

 their bark, which by its be'.ng dried became tubnlar^ this bark was denominated 

 **a\* r-vfiy x or eassia fistula. But as in process of time the wood of this tree 

 wasfou,nd> useless, they stripped the bark from it, and brought that only ; which 

 custom prevails at this day. See account of the cinnamon-tree by Dr. Watson, 

 Phil Traus. \o\. xlvtf. 



