cmNAMON GARDENS 225 



effects of a quarter of a century of neglect, and produce a feel- 

 iji<j^ of disappointment and melancholy. 



The beautiful shrubs which furnish this spice have been 

 loft to the wild growth of nature, and in some places are 

 ( ntirely supplanted by an undergrowth of jungle, while in 

 others a thick cover of climbing plants, bignonias, ipomseas, 

 the quadrangular vine (whose fleshy stem, when freshly cut, 

 yields to the wild elephant a copious draught of pure taste- 

 less fluid), the pitcher plant, and other parasites and epi- 

 ]>hytes, conceals them under heaps of verdure and blossom. 

 ( )ne most interesting creeper which encumbers the cinnamon 

 tree is the night-blowing Alango, the moon flower of the 

 iMiropeans, which never opens its petals until darkness comes 

 on, and attracts the eye through the gloom by its pure and 

 snowy whiteness. 



It would, however, be erroneous to suppose that the cinnamon 

 LC.'irdens have been universally doomed to the same neglect, 

 lluis Professor Schmarda, who visited Mr. Stewart's plantation 

 two miles to the south of Colombo, admired the beautiful order 

 in which it was kept. A reddish sandy clay and fine white quarz 

 s;md form the soil of the plantation. White sand is considered as 

 tlie best ground for the cinnamon tree to grow on, but it requires 

 an abundance of rain, which is never wanting in the south-western 

 ])art of the island ; much sand, much water, much sun, and many 

 termites, are, according to the Singhalese, the chief require- 

 ments of the plant. For as these otherwise so destructive 

 creatures do not injure the cinnamon trees, but rather render 

 themselves useful by destroying many other insects, they remain 

 unmolested, and everywhere raise their high conical mounds or 

 nests in the midst of the plantation. The aspect of a well- 

 conditioned cinnamon-garden is rather monotonous, for though 

 the trees when left to their full growth attain a height of forty 

 ' >v fifty feet, and a thickness of from eighteen to twenty inches, 

 yet, as the best spice is furnished by the shoots that spring from 

 the roots after the chief stem has been removed, they are kept 

 as a kind of coppice, and not allowed to rise higher than ten 

 feet. 



The shrubs planted in regular rows, four or five feet apart, 

 consist of four or five shoots whose slender stems, very much 

 resembling those of the hazel tree, are leafed from top to bottom. 



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