CINNAMON 225 



Cinnamomum Tamala, Mes., Tajpat. A cinnamon 

 tree growing in the Himalayas, East Bengal, Khasiya 

 Hills, and Burma, which supplies one of the barks 

 known as Cassia lignea or cassia cinnamon, and its 

 leaves are also used as a spice by the natives of India 

 under the name of Tajpat. The leaves were known as 

 a drug under the name Tamal patra very early, and are 

 described and figured by Garcia, Historia aromatum 

 (1693). 



Cinnamomum obtusifolium, 1 an allied plant, is 

 also known by the same native name and used for the 

 same purposes. Dr. Watts says that C. Tamala is 

 most likely to yield the taj or tajpat of the North- West 

 Provinces and Punjab, but in Bengal the leaves and 

 bark of C. obtusifolium^ Nees, bears this name. 



Mukerji describes (Handbook of Indian Agri- 

 culture) its cultivation in Bengal. He says that though 

 it is a native of the Himalayas, at 3,000 to 7,000 ft. 

 altitude, it grows very well at Sibpur in shady localities, 

 and the tree is worth growing in moist and well shaded 

 localities, as the use of tajpat as a spice is almost 

 universal in India. A couple of small trees supply all 

 the tajpat needed for one family. The tree should be 

 propagated from seed imported from Sylhet. Seedlings 

 should be grown in seed beds, and in two or three years 

 transplanted into fields 10 ft. apart. 



The leaves can be plucked after the fifth year, and 

 the tree goes on yielding for fifty or a hundred years. 

 But as the shed leaves are just as aromatic, if not more 

 so, than the green leaves, stripping off green leaves, 

 which weakens the tree, is not necessary. 



The leaves are used as a spice in India in curries, and 

 those of C. Tamala are also employed in calico printing 

 in combination with Myrobalans. The bark is also 

 used in dyeing in Chutia Nagpur, as an auxiliary with 

 Mallotus PhUippinensis. About 33 tons of leaves and 



1 Cinnamomum obtusifolium, Nees, is believed by some botanists to be the wild 

 plant from which the Chinese cassia, Cinnamomum cassia, is derived by cultiva- 

 tion (see under Cassia Bark). 



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