141 

 CINNAMON CULTURE IN CEYLON. 



BY "W. C. ONDAATJE. 



The cinnamon tree of Ceylon is about thirty feet high. The root has the 

 odour of cinnamon as well as that of camphor, and yields this principle 

 upon distillation. The twigs are somewhat four-cornered, smooth, shining, 

 and free from any downiness. The leaves are liable to variation, ovate, or 

 ovate-oblong, terminating in an obtuse point, triple, or three-nerved ; that 

 is, there are three principal nerves, which sometimes remain separate .to 

 the very base, but there usually are, moreover, in many cases, two shorter 

 nerves external to these. Leaves reticulated on the under side, smooth, 

 shining, the uppermost the smallest, with a good deal of the taste of cloves. 

 The leaf buds are naked. Panicles terminal and axillary. Flowers usually 

 bisexual, rather silky. Perianth six-cleft (two), segments oblong, the 

 upper part deciduous. Fertile stamens nine, in three rows, the three 

 inner opening outwards, three abortive capitate stamens (staminodia) in the 

 interior of all. Ovary one-celled, with a single ovule. Stigma disk-like. 

 Drupe (or berry), one-seeded, seated in the cup-like six-lobed base of the 

 perianth (7). Seed large, with large oily cotyledons (8-10) ; embryo above. 

 Native of Ceylon, now cultivated elsewhere, as in the Malabar Coast, in 

 Java, Cayenne, &c. Nees von E., as Laurus Cinnamomum 128, St. and C'h. 

 121. (Royle's Mat. Medica and Therapeutics, p. 538). 



The tree flowers in February or March, and is an evergreen. 



The natives of Ceylon reckon the Rase Corundu as the only genuine 

 species which produces the true cinnamon {Cinnamomum Zeylanicurri) ; and 

 six are considered spurious, known to them under the names of — 

 Cahati Corundu, literally Astringent Cinnamon. 

 Swel Corundu ,, Slimy do. 



Dawel Corundu ,, Flat do. 



Tunpot Corundu ,, Three-leaved do. 

 Valli Corundu ,, Camphor do. 



Cattoe Corundu ,, Thorny do. 



But the Rase Corundu has been fancifully called by different names — 

 namely, Pany Corundu, or Honey Cinnamon ; Rase Corundu, or Sweet 

 Cinnamon ; and Nay Corundu, or Snake Cinnamon, from its extreme pun- 

 gency, owing to the quality imparted to that plant by peculiar soil and 

 cultivation ; these are therefore to be regarded merely as accidental. 



The cinnamon plant delights in a silicious soil, with an admixture of 

 vegetable mould, in which only it produces the sweet taste, aromatic smell, 

 and the pale brown, or russet colour, which renders it so valuable as an 

 article of commerce, and useful as a spice ; for it has generally happened 

 that plants, even of the genuine kind, when grown in valleys on marshy 

 grounds, or on those subject to inundations, lose their characteristic proper- 

 ties : e.g., the plants growing in Batticaloa and Chilaw, which are allowed 



