224 CINNAMOMUM ZETLANICUM 



CINNAMOMUM. The prepared bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, 

 Nees, and of Cinnamomum aromaticum, Nees; OLEUM CINNAMOMI. 

 The volatile oil obtained from the bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, 

 Nees (U. S. P.). 



Production, Varieties, and Commerce. The best cinnamon bark 

 is imported from Ceylon, where it is obtained from the cultivated 

 plant; this is distinguished in commerce as Ceylon cinnamon. 

 Other well known varieties of cinnamon bark are the Malabar or 

 Tinnevellij, Tellicherry, and Java, all of which are inferior to 

 Ceylon cinnamon ; but the Tellicherry is next in value to it, and 

 sometimes but little inferior in quality. In Ceylon the culti- 

 vation of coffee is displacing that of cinnamon, and the exports are 

 declining. The importations of cinnamon into this country from 

 Ceylon are also much less than formerly, for while in 1869 

 2,611,473 Ibs. were imported, in 1872 the quantity was only 

 1,015,461 Ibs. In the latter year we imported 56,000 Ibs. of 

 cinnamon from other countries. 



The principal cinnamon gardens or plantations of Ceylon are in 

 the vicinity of Columbo, and their management is nearly similar to 

 that of an oak- coppice in England. The plants are pruned so as 

 to prevent their forming trees, but to cause them to produce 

 stocks or stools, from which four or five shoots are allowed to 

 grow. These shoots usually come to perfection at the age of 

 from eighteen months to two years, when they are beginning to 

 turn brown on their surface from the greenish epidermis be- 

 coming replaced by the production of a corky layer of bark. 

 Such shoots, which are commonly from 6 to 10 feet high, and 

 from J to 2 inches thick, are then cut off by a long sickle-shaped 

 knife, called a catty, stripped of their leaves, and trimmed with a 

 knife, the little pieces which are removed being kept and sold as 

 cinnamon chips. The peeling is then effected by cutting through 

 the bark transversely at distances of about a foot, and by making 

 two opposite, or where the branch is thick, three or four longi- 

 tudinal incisions to connect the transverse ones, and the bark is 

 then readily removed by introducing the peeling knife termed a 

 mama beneath it. The pieces of bark are then placed one within 



