THE WILD CINNAMON FAMILY 



CANELLACE^ Martius 



HIS family contains 4 genera, with about 7 species of trees indigenous 

 to tropical America, and is of economic importance principally for 

 yielding the light yellow bark called Wild cinnamon, or Canella bark, 

 a spice and aromatic tonic. 

 The CanellacecR have alternate, simple, entire, evergreen punctate leaves without 

 stipules; the flowers are perfect and regular, in corymbose cymes; the calyx con- 

 sists of 3 thick imbricated sepals, the corolla of 4 to 12 narrow imbricated petals 

 or sometimes more; stamens numerous, borne with the petals, their filaments united 

 into a tube encircling the ovary; anthers extrorse, joined to the filament-tube; 

 ovary free, of 2 to 5 united carpels, i-celled, with 2 to 5 parietal placentae; style 

 stout; stigma 2- to s-lobed; ovules 2 to many, horizontal. Fruit a 2- to several- 

 seeded berry; seeds shining and crustaceous; endosperm fleshy; embryo straight 

 or sKghtly curved. 



One genus, with a single species, occurs in our area. 



CINNAMON WOOD 



GENUS CANELLA PATRICK BROWNE 



Species Canella Winterana (Linnaeus) Gaertner 



Laurus Winterana Linnaeus. Canella alba Murray 



SMALL tree, also called Canella bark, Whitewood, and Wild cinna- 

 mon, of frequent occurrence on the Florida Keys and throughout the 

 ,West Indies to Venezuela. Its maximum height is about 15 meters, 

 with a trunk diameter of 2.5 dm. 

 The trunk is short, the branches slender, more or less outspreading, the tree 

 round-topped; the bark is about 3 mm. thick, separating into thick light gray scales; 

 the inner bark is about i mm. thick, buff-colored, very spicy and aromatic. The 

 twigs are stout, roimd, gray, and bear large leaf scars. The leaves are alternate, 

 leathery, oblanceolate, spatulate or oblong-spatulate, 3 to 10 cm. long, blunt at the 

 apex, narrowed at the base, slightly revolute on the margin, deep green and shin- 

 ing above, pale and pellucid-punctate beneath; the leaf-stalk is short, stout, 

 winged and grooved. The flowers are in many-flowered cymes, which are termi- 

 nal or sometimes in the upper axils, about 4 cm. across; the calyx has 3 orbicular 

 or kidney-shaped, concave, leathery sepals, which are erect, very thick, half the 



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