20 Report of Schimmel § Co. 1922. 



Before the war Germany was, as a rule, the largest buyer of both quills and chips; 

 other important countries to which the bark was shipped being the United Kingdom, 

 Spain, Holland, Italy, the United States and Belgium. In 1920 Germany again became 

 an important buyer 218 736 lbs. of quills and 134176 lbs. of chips, against 4928 lbs. of 

 quills in the year before, in that year the United States being the chief buyer of quills. 



The best cinnamon is grown in Ceylon in a very sandy clay or fine white quartz 

 sand, with a good rich sub-soil, at altitudes of less than 1500 feet, in the strip of 

 land 12 to 15 miles wide, on the south-west coast, between Negumbo, Colombo and 

 Matura. The tree is usually grown from seed in nursery lines and transplanted when 3, 

 4 or 12 months old. Sometimes' it is propagated by cuttings of very young three-leaved 

 shoots, or by layers. Adult trees flower in May and fruit in July; and, unless bagged 

 for seed, the entire crop of fruit is liable to be eaten by birds. The ripe fruit is 

 heaped in the shade until the pulp turns black and rots, when the seed can be removed 

 by trampling; the seed is washed and dried in the shade before sowing. — Cattle, 

 goats and squirrels nibble the young shoots; but otherwise cinnamon is not very liable 

 to animal or vegetable pests. Pestalozzia cinnamomi, Raciborski, is a minute leaf and 

 twig fungus; and the "pink disease" (Corticium salmoni-color, B. and Br.), a wet season 

 disease, well known as attacking Para rubber, forming a pink crust on the stem and 

 destroying the cambium, a sign that the trees are over-crowded, also occurs and can be 

 dealt with by spraying with Bordeaux mixture and excising and burning affected parts. 



In order to obtain the bark, the shoots, usually two years old, averaging 3 to 4 feet 

 in length and 0.5 to 0.75 inch in diameter, are cut in May or November, when the sap 

 moves and facilitates peeling. The slips of bark are heaped together and covered over 

 for a day or two, so as to undergo, perhaps, a slight fermentation 1 ) which facilitates 

 the scraping off of the epidermis and pulpy hypoderm in the process known as 

 "piping". The slips of bark contract into pipes or "quills", which are packed one 

 inside the other, cut square and of uniform length, dried in the shade and ultimately 

 in the sun, and eventually made up into bundles of 100 lbs. weight. The prunings and 

 waste pieces obtained in peeling are known as cinnamon chips. They have only been 

 exported from Ceylon since 1867 and have been used since 1872 chiefly for distilling 

 cinnamon oil 2 ). 



There is no evidence of the cultivation on any commercial scale of the true 

 cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) in India, though it may be represented as a wild 

 tree in the Western Ghats. But various barks and twigs are sold as Cassia lignea 

 originating from other Cinnamomum specias, such as C. Tamala, Nees et Eberm., 

 C. obtusifolium, Nees (closely allied to C. Cassia, Blume), C. iners, Wight 3 ) (according 

 to Thwaites and Ridley only a coarser form of C. zeylanicum. like C. nitidum, Blume, 

 and some others) 4 ) and C. macrocarpum, Hook. fil. The essential oils of these drugs 

 are used partly for adulterating the genuine cinnamon oil, partly in the soap industry. 



Cinnamon trees were introduced into Seychelles with other species, about 1775, 

 from the Dutch East Indies, and were for a time cultivated in the Royal Gardens at 

 Mane. The trees spread through the forests and were neglected until 1908, in which 

 year 1202 tons of bark were exported. At the same time distillation of oil from the 

 bark of the wild trees was commenced. The bark differed but little in appearance 



x ) The fresh white bark turns red on drying, owing to the formation of phlobaphene. A fermentation 

 is not very likely to occur. — 2 ) Cf. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, 2 ntf edition, vol. II, p. 419. 

 — 3 ) According to the Index Kewensis, Cinnamomum iners, Wight, is identical with C. zeylanicum. — *) Dymock, 

 Pharmacographia Indica, 1893, vol. Ill, p. 208. 



