110 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



As a spice, it is used for flavouring ices, custards, and 

 particularly chocolate, for which purpose the Spaniards 

 employ it extensively ; but its high price prevents its being 

 used to any great extent in this country. An inferior kind, 

 with shorter and thicker pods, is occasionally met with ; it 

 is probably the pods of V. sylvestris and V. sativa. The 

 quantity imported is small, amounting only to about 5 or 6 

 cwt. per annum. 



Canella-Baek. — The inner bark of Canella alba. (Nat. 

 Ord. Canellacece, Yon Martius.) 



This is another of the articles usually classed as Materia 

 Medica, but which has as fair a title to be considered a spice 

 as cinnamon or clove-barks. It is the produce of a tree 

 growing fifty feet in height, and is separated from the outer 

 bark by beating. The Negroes of the West Indies and 

 America, where it is a native, use it as a spice. Large 

 quantities are produced and exported from the Bahamas, 

 where it is termed Wild Cinnamon and White-wood bark. 



Canella-bark is in thick quills, or portions of quills; it 

 is of a light drab colour, about one-sixteenth of an inch in 

 thickness, having a slight odour of cloves ; the taste is that 

 of a mixture of cloves, cinnamon, and pepper. In this 

 country it is only used as a medicine. It has often been 



