494 



CINNAMON. 



inches iu diameter, rising to the height of from 20 to 30 feet ; it 

 grows irregular and knotty ; the external bark is thick, rough, and 

 scabrous, and of an ash colour ; the inner bark is reddish. The bark 

 of the young shoot is often speckled with dark-green and light - 

 orange colours. The branches are thick and spreading, and shoot 

 forth horizontally or inclining downwards ; they are covered with 

 numerous oblong leaves growing in pairs opposite to each other. 

 When first developed, these leaves are of a bright red hue, then of a 

 pale yellow, and when arrived at maturity of a dark olive colour. At 

 full growth they are from 6 to 9 inches long, and from 2 to 3 inches 

 broad. The upper surface is smooth and shining, and of a darker 

 green than the under side. The petiole has the odour and taste of 

 cinnamon. The plants bloom in January and February, and the seed 

 ripen in June, July, and August. Many white flowers grow on one 

 peduncle. Their smell, though not strong, is exceedingly pleasant, 

 resembling a mixture of the rose and lilac. The fruit is an oval 

 berry, larger than black currants, and adheres in the manner of an 

 acorn to the receptacle, which is thick, green, and hexangular. The 

 leaves when full grown emit a strong aromatic odour on being bruised, 

 and have the pungent taste of cloves. 



The prepared bark of this tree is the cinnamon of commerce. 

 Diversities in the quality of cinnamon do not appear to arise from any 

 varieties of the plant, but from care and skill in the preparation, the 

 soil and temperature of the country, the age and health of the plant. 

 It is rarely found worth collecting except in the southern and western 

 aspects of Ceylon. Beyond certain limits the bark is never of a 

 good quality, as it is powerfully affected by local circumstances. 



The Karuwa of the Malabar coast has been considered by many 

 botanists as identical with the Laiirus Cassia, but it is said that specific 

 difference can be discovered between the cinnamon tree of Ceylon and 

 the karuwa. The prepared bark of the karuwa is, according to good 

 authority, inferior to the best Ceylon cinnamon. It is, however, 

 allowed to be superior to the produce of the cinnamon tree which is 

 found on the northern and eastern part of the island. Linnasus, 

 deceived by the name of Laurus Cassia, was misled, and ascribes 

 qualities to that tree which it does not possess. 



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

 of vegetable mould, in which only it produces the sweet taste, aro- 

 matic smell, and the pale brown or russet colour which renders it so 

 valuable as an article of commerce and useful as spice, for it has 

 generally happened that plants, even of the genuine kind, when they 

 grow in valleys or marshy ground, or on land subject to inundations, 

 lose their characteristic properties ; two-ninths of the plants growing 

 in Batticolea and Chilaw, allowed to be of the genuine kind, are 

 deficient in smell and taste, and consequently less useful or valuable ; 

 and the cinnamon grown in the valleys of Moronea Corle, the soil of 

 which is marshy, yields a bark of inferior quality. Again, the plants 

 which are raised in Bombay, from seeds and seedlings sent thither at 

 an early period of the British rule in that island, although they grew 

 luxuriantly, produced bark of an inferior quality, which was not 

 valued as an article of commerce. 



