88 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



that the designation was applied to all aromatic vegetable 

 products ; and as many of these were doubtless produced in 

 Arabia, and her sea-girt boundaries made her the mart for 

 similar products from other countries — thence arose her fame 

 as " the land of spices and frankincense." There is reason 

 too for supposing that a large trade was carried on in these 

 productions, chiefly arising from the use of spices and the 

 aromatic gums in embalming the dead, which was in those 

 times the greatest use of such materials. Even in our time 

 the term Spice applies to the most dissimilar parts of plants, 

 as the seeds, roots, bark, flowers, etc. ; and the only definition 

 of the term we can give, is — a vegetable product which has 

 an agreeable aromatic and pungent flavour, rendering it 

 useful in the preparation of certain kinds of food and con- 

 diments. The most important of the spices is 



Cinnamon. — The dried under-bark of the Cinnamomum 

 Zeylanicum. (Nat. Ord. Lauracece.) (Plate III. fig. 13.) 



A.t present the production of the true Cinnamon is chiefly 

 confined to the island of Ceylon, where it is very extensively 

 cultivated. Much dispute has arisen between various authors 

 as to the derivation of the common name of this spice. It 

 has been known from a very early period, and formed one 

 of the ingredients in the holy oil of anointing used by Moses 



