132 



■Remarks on Laurus Cassia. 



[Jan, 



in its foliage it greatly resembles, but nothing can be more distinct than 

 its inflorescence : that of the camphor tree being a panicle, having a 

 stalk as long as the leaves ; while in Daw alkurundu it may be de- 

 scribed as a subsessile capitulum, that is, 5 or 6 sessile flowers congested 

 on the apex of a very short peduncle, and surrounded by an involucrum 

 of 4 or 5 leaves ; several of which capitula usually form verticels round 

 the naked parts of the branches where the leaves have fallen. He begins 

 his description of Laurus Cassia* by stating that he at first considered 

 it a variety of the antecedent (cinnamon), but now that he knows not by 

 what mark to distinguish it from Camphoriferajaponensiam, for the leaves 

 are thinner than those of cinnamon, the nerves uniting above the base as 

 in Caniphorlfera, and are sprinkled beneath with a greyish dew fsuhtus 

 rore ccesio illinita ) as in the camphortree, and are at the same time lanceo- 

 late and of a thinner texture than the preceding (cinnamon). The whole of 

 his description in short agrees most exactly with Mr. Marshall's description 

 of the Cingalese Dawalkurundu, and leaves not a doubt that both had the 

 same plant in view, and consequently that Mr. Marshall is so far correct 

 in saying that the bark of the Laurus Cassia of Linneeas possessed none 

 of the qualities attributed to it. So far all is clear but now the chapter 

 of errors begins. 



Had Linnseus been permitted to exercise his own unbiassed judgment in 

 this case, it is not improbable he would have avoided the error of 

 assigning to a plant which, with all his acuteness, he knew not how to 

 distinguish from the camphor tree, the credit of producing Cassia, or at 

 all events would not have done so without some expression of doubt, so 

 as still to leave the question an open one. But, upon consulting other 

 authorities, he found in Burman's Thesaurus Zeylanicus the figure of a 

 species of Cinnamomum or Laurus as he called the genus, to which 

 Burman had given the name of Cinnamomim perpetuo Jlorens, &c. and as- 

 signed the native name of Dawalkurundu, not as it appears from the 

 specimen itself having been so named, but because beiHg different from 

 the true cinnamon of which he had seen specimens and figures, he 

 thought it an inferior, wild or jungle sort, and must of necessity be the 

 plant which Herman had described in his Musseum Zeylanicum, though 

 the inflorescence differed much from the description, (a very essential 

 point, which Burman remarked and endeavours to explain away,) and 

 therefore gave it the same Cingalese name. Linneeus's specimen not being 

 in flower, and the resemblance between the specimen and figure being in 



. * " Hanc speciem olim pro antecedentis varletate habui, nunc vero, qua nota hanc » 

 CampJiorifera japonet^sUim distinguam, non novi ; Folia enim Cinnaruomo tenuiora, ner- 

 Yis ante basin coeuntibus ut in Camphorifera; subtus rore esesio Illinita, ut Camphora, 

 •t simul lanceokta ac tenuiori substantia quam pr8ecedentis."i2?i??. Flor, Zeylanica p. 63. 



