I S L A I^ D OF CEYLON. 223 



1532. This is an elegant fpecies of laurel that grows to the 

 height of twenty feet ; the flowers fmall, and of a yellowilh 

 color : the fruit pulpy, with an oblong ftone. 



This valuable tree grows in greater quantity in the ifle of 

 Ceylon, than any other place. It grows wild in the woods, with- 

 out any culture : every province does not poiTefs it, there is 

 none in that oi Jaffa?iapatam, nor Manaar, but abound in moft 

 of the internal parts, and about Negumbo and Gale. A pigeon, 

 I think the Pompadour, Brown's Ilhijlr. tab. 19, is the fpecies, 

 which, by carrying the fruit to different places, is a great dif- 

 feminator of this valuable tree. I do not believe it to be pecu- 

 liar to this ifland ; but the bark is infinitely fuperior in quality 

 to any other. Botanifts enumerate numbers of kinds, but they 

 only vary being taken from trees of different ages, or growing 

 in different foils, and fituations. It may be found in Malabar, 

 Sumatra, See. but is depretiated by another name, CaJJia, and 

 Canella, to our unfpeakable lofs ; Cinnamonium was a more dig- Cinnamon, or 



i- , Cassia. 



nified name. The antients fpeak of it under that title, m fuch 

 high terms, that the Dutch wifely retained the name, which 

 gave it greateft refpedlability. Our countryman, the late Taylor 

 White, Efq. in Ph. Tranf. vol. I. p. 860, and Mr. Coinbes, refi- 

 dent in Sumatra, in page 873, are entirely of opinion, that C/;z- 

 namon and Cajfia do not fpecifically differ. Mw.JVhite''^ account 

 'is accompanied with fomc very good figures of the leaves of 

 the former. 



The celebrated bark is the inner, and is reckoned the moft 

 perfed when taken from trees of feven or eight years old, if they 

 grow in a wet flimy foil; but thofe which grow in the warm white 



fan:d. 



