534 LAURACEJi:. 



The existence of a spice-yielding region in South America, having 

 conie to the ears of the Spanish conquerors, was regarded as a matter 

 of interest. It would appear that cinnamon was enumerated in the 

 earliest accounts among the precious products of the New World.^ 

 Such high importance was attached to it that in Ecuador an expedition 

 was fitted out. The direction of the enterprise was confided to Gonzalo 

 Pizarro, who with 340 soldiers, and more than 4000 Indians, laden with 

 supplies, quitted the city of Quito on Christmas Day, 1539. The 

 expedition, which lasted two years, resulted in the most lamentable 

 failure, only 130 Spaniards surviving the hardships of the journey. In 

 the account of it given by Garcilasso de la Vega, the cinnamon tree is 

 described as having large leaves like those of a laurel, with fruits 

 resembling acorns growing in clusters.'^ Fernandez de Oviedo^ has 

 also given some particulars regarding the spice, together with a figure 

 fairly representing its remarkable form ; and the subject has been 

 noticed by several other Spanish writers, including Monardes.* 



Notwithstanding the celebrity thus conferred on the spice, and the 

 fact that the latter gives its name to a large tract of country,^ and is 

 still the object of a considerable traffic, the tree itself is all but unknown 

 to science. Meissner places it doubtfully under the genus Nectandra, 

 with the specific name cinnamomoides, but confesses that its flowers 

 and fruits are alike unknown." 



The spice, for an ample specimen of which we have to thank Dr. 

 Destruge, of Guayaquil, consists of the enlarged and matured woody 

 'calyx, 1| to 2 inches in diameter, having the shape of a shallow funnel, 

 the open part of which is a smooth cup (like the cup of an acorn), sur- 

 rounded by a broad, irregular margin, usually recurved. The outer 

 surface is rough and veiny, and the whole calyx is dark brown, and has 

 a strong, sweet, aromatic taste, like cinnamon, for which in Ecuador it 

 is the common substitute. 



Dr. Destruge has also furnished us with a specimen of the bark, 

 which is in very small uncoated quills, exactly simulating true cinnamon. 

 We are not aware whether the bark is thus prepared in quantity. 



^ Account of Petrus Martyr d'Aiigleria ^ The village of San Jose de Canelos, 



to Cardinal Ascauio Sforza, in Michael which may be considered as the centre of 



Herr's Die new Welt, etc., Strassburg, the cinnamon region, was determined by 



1534. fol. 175. Mr. Spruce to be in lat. r20 S., long. IT 



^ Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon, a.d. 45 W., and at an altitude above the sea of 



1532-50, translated by Markham (Hakluyt 1590 feet. The forest of canelos, he tells 



Society) Lond. 1864. chap. 39-40 ; also us, has no definite boundaries ; but the 



J£xpedU'i07i of Gonzalo Pizarro to the Land term is popularly assigned to all the upper 



of Cinna7non, by Garcilasso Inca de la region of the Pastasa and its tributaries, 



Vega, forming part of the same volume. from a height of 4000 to 7000 feet on the 



" historia de las Indias, Madrid, i. (1851) slopes of the Andes, down to the Amazonian 



357. (lib. ix. c. 31). plain, and the confluence of the Bomboiiasa 



* De la Canela de ntiestras Indias. — and Pastasa. 



Historia de las cosas que se traen de ^ De Candolle, ProdTomiix, xv. sect. i. 



nuestras Indias occidentales, Sevilla, 1574. 167. 

 98. 



