CANELLA. 161 



Sloane, who has given a separate description of both trees, and wa 

 sensible of a difference in the taste of their barks, seems to insiuuate 

 that this might depend upon the place of growth, his remarks did 

 not wholly remove the error. 



Professor Murray, in his fourteenth edition of the Systema Vege- 

 tabilium, was the tirst who made a distinct genus of canella, and 

 thus corrected the mistake of Linnaeus, who, disregarding the evi- 

 dence of the old botanists, combined two genera under the name of 

 Laurus winterana ; but he afterwards made it a separate genus, and 

 called it Winterania, a name by which it has been long universally, 

 though improperly, distinguished. Mr. Aiton, who has followed 

 Murray in considering the canella, as differing generically from the 

 tree named after Winter, informs us, that it was cultivated by Mr. 

 Philip Miller at Chelsea, in 1739. 



The officinal canella alba is the bark of the brandies of this tree, 

 freed from its outward covering, and dried in the shade. It is 

 brought to Europe in long quills, which are about three quarters of 

 an inch in diameter, somewhat thicker than cinnamon, and both 

 externally and internally of a whitish or light brown colour, with a 

 yellowish hue, and commonly intermixed with thicker piece.*, which 

 are probably obtained from the trunk of the tree. This bark in 

 taste is moderately warm, aromatic, and bitterish ; its smell is agree- 

 able, and resembles that of cloves. Its virtues are extracted most 

 perfectly by proof spirit. " In distillation with water it yields au 

 essential oil of a dark yellowish colour, of a thick tenacious con- 

 sistence, difficultly separable from the aqueous fluid, in smell suf- 

 ficiently grateful, though rather less so than the bark itself: the 

 remaining decoction, inspissated, leaves an extract of great bitter- 

 ness, in consistence not uniform, seemingly composed of a resinous 

 and gummy matter, imperfectly mixed. On inspissating the spiri- 

 tuous tincture, the spirit which distils has no great smell or taste of 

 the canella, but is so far impregnated with its more volatile oil, as 

 to turn milky on the admixture of water : the remaining extract 

 retains the bitterness of the bark, but has little more of its warmth 

 or flavour than the extract made with water." 



The use of canella alba now supersedes that of the old bark of 

 Winter, on the authority of both the London and Edinburgh 

 pharmacopoeias. It has been supposed to possess a considerable 

 share of medicinal power, and is said to be an useful medicine in 



vol. v. M 



