228 SPICES 



CHAP. 



stout short style and a small bilobed stigma. The fruit 

 resembles that of the true cinnamon, but is rather smaller. 

 It is black, pulpy, and aromatic, elliptic in outline, and 

 seated in a cup lobed at the edge, the remains of the 

 perianth. It contains a single seed. 



The flowers are fertilised by flies chiefly, and the 

 seed is dispersed by birds, which swallow the pulpy 

 fruit as soon as it is ripe. The dried fruits are known 

 Cassia buds. 



HISTORY 



Cassia has been known from the earliest times as a 

 spice. It is mentioned constantly in the Bible, and by 

 many of the early Greek authors, and in Chinese herbals 

 as early as 2700 B.C. A great part of this early recorded 

 bark was undoubtedly the Chinese Cassia, especially as 

 the Arabian and Persian name for the bark is Darachini, 

 from Dar, wood, and Chini, Chinese. At the same time 

 the Indian Tamala, or Taj pat, and the Malay barks may 

 have been also among the oriental imports into Europe 

 and Arabia under the name of Cassia. 



The origin of the Chinese bark, however, was un- 

 known till 1882. Mr. Ford, Superintendent of the 

 Botanical and Afforestation Department of Hongkong, 

 made an expedition to the West river, Canton province, 

 to report on the cultivation of the plant. His account 

 was published in a Report to the Hongkong Govern- 

 ment, and also in the Linnean Society's Journal, vol. 

 xx. p. 19, by Mr. (now Sir) W. Thiselton Dyer, in a 

 note on the origin of Cassia lignea. 



Cassia was known in Western Europe as early as the 

 seventh century, and is mentioned in medical books in 

 England before the Norman conquest. It was sold as 

 Canel in England in 1264 at lOd. per lb., and in the 

 fifteenth century was mentioned in the Boke of Nurture, 

 by John Eussell, as resembling cinnamon, but being in- 

 ferior. 



