PLATE DXCVI. 



LAURUS CINNAMOMUM 



Cinnamon Tree, 



CLASS IX. ORDER I. or CLASS XXII. ORDER VII. 



ENNZANDRIA MONOGYNTA. or DICECIA POLYANDRIA. Nine 



Stamens. One Style, or Male and Female Flowers on different Plants. Stamens 



more than Seven 



ESSENTIAL GENERI CHARACTER. 



Caltx nullus. Corolla 6-partita, glandulis 

 tribus gernien cingentibus. Filaraenta in- 

 teriora glandulifera. Drupa ]-sperma. 



Cup none. Blossom 6-parted. Glands three, 

 surrounding the germen. Inner filaments 

 bearing glands. Berry dry, one-seeded. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Laurus folus trinemis ovato-oblongis, nervis || Leaves three nerved, oval-oblong nerves vanish- 

 versus apicem evanescentibus. IVUldenow, ing towards the point of tbe leaf. 



Sp. PI. vol. 2. p. 477 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. A flower spread open, shown from the outer side, 



2. The same shown from the inner side* 



3. The pointal. 



For the first tolerable figure of the Cinnamon tree we are indebted to Dr. Hermann, Professor of Bo* 

 tany at Leyden wh d also the honour of introducing it to Europe, having brought living plants 

 with h-m. on his it ru from Ceylon, which vegetated in the Leyden Academy's garden, and in the 

 gardens of Mynheers Benting and Beverning between two and three years, until a severe winter de- 

 stroyed them. See his Catalogue of the Plants in the Leyden Garden (Horti Academici Lugduno-Ba- 

 lavi Gitalogus), page 130, plates 665 and 606. This fact is the more curious, as Linnaeus, describing the 

 Cinnamon from dried specimens in his noble patron Clifford's collection, fifty years after, speaks of it 

 as a plant forbidden to our shores ; which Europe bad never seen alive, and could hardly hope to see, 

 or to retain even if it could be procured. 



The Cinnamon was first cultivated in England by Mr. Miller in the Apothecaries* garden at Chelsea 

 about the year J 768 ; who probably received it from Holland, the Spice plantations at that time being 

 entirely in the hands of the Dutch. No figure of it has before been published in this country, nor any 

 account of its flowering. It grows naturally in the Island of Ceylon, from whence the vast quantity 

 annually imported into Europe is supplied. The following method of procuring and preparing the bark 

 is abridged from Thunberg's Travels. Proper trees being selected, that is, those that are neither too 

 young nor too old, the branches of three years growth are cut off with a pruning-knife, and their green 

 outer bark scraped off with a crooked knife. The remaining bark is then ripped up lengthwise and 



eled off ; and the smaller pieces being drawn into the larger, they are laid in the sun^to dry. After 



ing sufficiently dried, they are tied up in bundles of about 30 pounds weight each, and brought to 

 the Company's storehouses, where inspectors appointed for that purpose examine every bundle by 

 tasting of it 5 and on its being approved of, it is tied in bundles of about 85 pounds weight each, which 

 are then sewed into double woollen sacks, over which black pepper is strewed to attract any remaining 

 moisture, and in this state shipped for Europe. From the dust and fragments remaining in the ware- 

 houses the extremely valuable and rare oil of Cinnamon is distilled. An oil is also distilled from the 

 leaves, another from the fruit, and a fourth from the bark of the root. 



Ginnamon is also found wild in the woods of Martinico, according to Professor Jacquin 5 but the 

 Ceylon Cinnamon is always considered the best. 



We are informed by our friend Mr. Anderson, that a Cinnamon tree in the garden of the Bishop of 

 Winchester at Farnham Castle (perhaps the finest in England) has for many years blossomed and ripened 

 its fruit annually, and that great numbers of young trees have been raised from the fruit, which have- 

 far surpassed for healthiness and hardiness the plants commonly obtained from layers, or those imported j 

 and which leads us to hope that the Cinnamon trees may soon become more common and less difficult 

 ©f cultivation : and his lordship s great success with it will, we hope, serve to stimulate others. We 

 have also seen a drawing in Mr. Lambert's collection, taken in the Bishop of Durham's garden at 

 Mongewell, where it flowered, as we are informed by his lordship, in February 1796. 



The Cinnamon tree requires to be kept in the bark-bed in the stove, and is propagated by cuttings 

 and layers. 



Our drawing was made in the month of February at J. Knight's nursery, King's Road, from a fine 

 plant upwards of three feet high. 





