90 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Although the cinnamon shrub is found growing wild in 

 Java and Ceylon^ the wild cinnamon is not considered of 

 any value ; the indigestible seeds are said to be carried from 

 place to place by birds which feed upon the berries — a fact 

 thus alluded to by Moore^ the Anglo-oriental poet : — 



And mine is the gentle song that bears 

 From soul to soul the wishes of love^ 



As a bird that wafts through genial airs 

 The cinnamon-seed from grove to grove." 



The same poet also gives an exquisite simile of the sweet- 

 ness of the bark : — 



The dream of the injured patient mind. 



That smiles at the wrongs of men, 

 Is found in the bruised and wounded rind 



Of the cinnamon, sweetest then." 



The shrub which produces the cinnamon belongs to the 

 Laurel tribe^ and^ though not so compact as the common 

 laurel [Cerasus Laurocerasus) y resembles it very much; it is 

 an evergreen^ and the leaves are of a pale yellowish- green 

 colour, deeply veined and ribbed ; they possess the same 

 flavour as the bark, in a less degree; they were formerly 

 sold as a substitute for the spice, under the name of folia 

 malahathri, as were also the leaves of other species called 



