SECTION III. 



SPICES, AEOMATIC CONDIMENTS, FBAGKRANT 

 WOODS, Ac. 



THE various spices and condiments which form so large an item 

 in our commercial imports, are obtained from the barks, the dried 

 seeds, the fruit, flower-buds, and root-stocks, of different plants. 

 The chief aromatic barks comprise the cinnamon, cassia lignea, 

 cascarilla, and canella alba. The medicinal barks will be noticed 

 elsewhere. The seeds and fruits include pepper, pimento, car- 

 damoms, anise, nutmegs, chillies. The flower-buds of some furnish 

 cloves and cassia buds ; the roots supply ginger, galangale, turmeric, 

 and ginseng. A few other useful substances, such as vanilla, the 

 costus, or putchuk, mace, soy, and some of the odoriferous woods 

 I have included under this section. 



CINNAMON. 



v 



THE true cinnamon of commerce is obtained from the inner bark 

 of Cinnamonum verum, II. Brown ; or O. zeylanicum ; the Laurus 

 cinnamonum, of Linnaeus, a handsome looking tree, native of the 

 East Indies. The island of Ceylon is the chief seat of its culti- 

 vation, and for a long time the Dutch depended solely for their 

 supply of this bark for the home market on the produce of the 

 wild cinnamon trees in the King of Kandy's territories there. At 

 last, from the increasing demand, they resorted to the growth and 

 more careful culture of the tree themselves. About the year 

 1794, the cultivation had succeeded so well that they were enabled 

 to meet the demand for the spice from trees of their own growth, 

 independent of any supplies from the Kandian monarch's 

 territory. 



In 1796, when this island fell into our hands, the local govern- 

 ment endeavoured, after the former fashion of the Dutch, to re- 

 strain the production of this article of commerce within due 

 bounds, by destroying all above a certain quantity. 



General Maitland, in 1805, and his successors in the govern- 



