CORTEX CINNAMUML 519 



Cliinese ink. The export of this camphor by sea from Canton is valued 

 at about £3,000 a year; it is also exported from Kiungchow, iu the 

 island of Hainan. 



CORTEX CINNAMOMI. 



CoHex Cinnamomi Zeylanici; Cinnamon; F. Cannelle de Ceylan; 

 G. Zimmt, Ceylon Zimmt, Kaneel. 



Botanical Origin — Ginnamomuni zeylanicuni Breyne, — a small 

 evergreen tree, richly clothed with beautiful, shining leaves usually some- 

 what glaucous beneath, and having panicles of gi-eenish flowers of dis- 

 agreeable odour. 



It is a native of Ceylon, where, according to Thwaites, it is gene- 

 rally distributed through the forests up to an elevation of 3,000 feet, 

 and one variety even to 8,000 feet. It is exceedingly variable in 

 stature, and in the outline, size and consistence of the leaf; and several 

 of the extreme forms are very unlike one another and have received 

 specific names. But there are also numerous intermediate forms; and in 

 a large suite of specimens, many occur of which it is impossible to 

 determine whether they should be referred to this species or to that. 

 Thwaites' is of opinion that some still admitted species, as C. obtusi- 

 folium Nees and G. iners Reinw., will prove on further investigation to 

 be mere forms of C. zeylanicum. 



Beddome," Conservator of Forests in Madras, remarks that in the 

 moist forests of South-western India there are 7 or S well-marked 

 varieties which might easily be regarded as so many distinct species, 

 but for the fact that they are so connected inter se by intermediate 

 forms, that it is impossible to find constant characters worthy of 

 specific distinction. They grow from the sea level up to the highest 

 elevations, and, as Beddome thinks, owe their differences chiefly to local 

 circumstances, so that he is disposed to class them simply as forms of 

 C. zeylanicum. 



History — (For that of the essential oil of cinnamon see page 526). 

 Cinnamon was held in high esteem in the most remote times of 

 history. In the words of the learned Dr. Vincent, Dean of West- 

 minstei',* it seems to have been the first spice sought after iu all 

 oriental voyages. Both cinnamon and cassia are mentioned as precious 

 odoriferous substances iu the Mosaic writings and in the Biblical books 

 of Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, Ezekiel and Revelations, also by Theo- 

 phrastus, Herodotus, Galen, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo and many other 

 writei-s of antiquity: and from the accounts which have thus come 

 down* to us, there appears reason for believing that the .spices referred 

 to were nearly the same as those of the present day. That cinnamon 

 and cassia were extremely analogous, is proved by the remark of Galen, 

 that the finest cassia differs so little from the lowest quality of cinnamon, 

 that the first may be substituted for the second, provided a double weight 

 of it be used. 



^ Enumeratio Plantariim Zeylanive, 18(54. ^ Flora Sylvatka for Southern India, 



2.52.— Consult also Meissner in De Cand. 1872. 262. 



Prod. XV. sect. i. 10. ^ Commerce ami Navigation of the An- 



deiUt ill Uie Indian Ocean, ii. (1807) 512. 



