VOL. XXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 343 



where with little wet they stand fully exposed to the sun, but is rather of a bit- 

 terish taste, something astringent, and smells like camphor. 



For by the heat of the sun's rays the camphor is made so thin and volatile, 

 that it rises up and mixes with the juices of the tree, where it undergoes a small 

 fermentation, and then rising still higher between the substance of the wood 

 and the thin inner membrane of the bark, it is at last so effectually diffused 

 through the branches and leaves, that there is not the least traces of it to be 

 perceived any where. Mean while that thin and glutinous membrane, which 

 lines the bark on the inside, between it and the substance of the wood, attracts 

 and sucks in all the purest, sweetest, and most agreeable particles of the juice, 

 leaving the thick and gross ones, which are pushed forward, and serve to nou- 

 rish the branches, leaves, and fruit. 



For if the bark be fresh taken off", that juice which remains in the tree has a 

 bitterish taste, not unlike that of cloves. On the contrary, the inner mem- 

 brane of the bark, when fresh taken off, has a most exquisite sweetness, 

 extremely agreeable to the taste ; whereas the outward part of the bark differs 

 but very little in taste from the common trees; which shows plainly that all its 

 sweetness is owing only to the inner membrane. But when the bark is laid in 

 the sun, to its being dried and wound up, this oily and agreeable sweetness of 

 the inner membrane communicates and diffuses itself also throughout the whole 

 outward part, and imbues it so strongly, as to make the bark a commodity, 

 which for the fragrancy of its smell, and the sweetness of its taste, is coveted 

 all over the world. 



The bark may be taken off from trees which have stood 14, 15, or J 6 years, 

 according to the quality of the soil they stand in ; but beyond that time they 

 grow thicker, and gradually lose their taste and agreeable sweetness, which 

 makes the bark have more of the taste of camphor; besides, the bark is then 

 grown so thick, that if it be laid in the sun, it will no longer shrink and wind 

 itself up, but remain flat. 



And here it may be thought a fit subject of inquiry, how it comes to pass, 

 thai, considering what vast quantities of cinnamon have been exported from 

 this island, and sold all over the world, by the Europeans as well as natives, 

 not only for these 200 years last past, there are yet such numbers of good trees 

 fit to be barked remaining in the island and growing there every year? Now in 

 order to solve this question, several authors, who have described the island of 

 Ceylon, have committed a considerable mistake, when they assure their readers, 

 that when the bark has been stripped off" the tree, it grows again in 4 or 5 

 years, and becomes fit to be stripped a second time. For this assertion is en- 



