CINNAMON GARDENS OF CEYLON. 



573 



cut and peeled in larger proportions than formerly. Hence the gross quantity exported 

 from Ceylon in 1857 (887,959 lbs.) was nearly double that of 1841. 



The cinnamon gardens, whose beauty and luxuriance has been so often vaunted by 

 travelers, have partly been sold, partly leased to private individuals ; and though less 

 than a century has elapsed since they were formed by the Dutch, they are already 

 becoming a wilderness. Those which surround Colombo on the land side exhibit the 

 effects of a quarter of a century of neglect, and produce a feeling of disappointment 

 and melancholy. The beautiful shrubs which furnish this spice have been left to 

 the wild growth of nature, and in some places are entirely supplanted by an under- 

 growth of jungle, while in others a thick cover of climbing plants conceals them 

 under heaps of verdure and blossom. It would, however, be erroneous to sup- 

 pose that the cinnamon-gardens have been universally doomed to the same neglect, 

 and many beautiful gardens still exist. The aspect of a well-conditioned cinnamon- 

 garden is rather monotonous ; for, though the trees when left to their full growth 

 attain a hight of forty or fifty feet, and a thickness of from eighteen to twenty 

 inches, yet, as the best spice is furnished by the shoots that spring from the roots after 

 the chief stem has been removed, they are kept as a kind of coppice, and not allowed 

 to rise higher than ten feet. The shrubs planted in regular rows, four or five feet 

 apart, consist of four or five shoots whose slender stems, very much resembling those 

 of the hazel tree, are leafed from top to bottom. The leaf when first developed is 

 partly of a bright red, and partly of a pale yellow ; it soon, however, assumes a greea 

 hue, and when at its full growth is on the upper surface of a dark olive color, and on 

 the under side of a lighter green ; it somewhat resembles that of the bay, but is longer 

 and narrower. The flowers bloom in January, and grow on foot-stalks rising from the 

 axillae of the leaves and the extremities of the branches, clustering in bunches, which 

 resemble in size and shape those of the lilac, but they are white with a brownish tinge 

 in the center. Though their smell has been frequently extolled as very fragrant, yet 

 it is weak, and by no means agreeable, resembling that of animal albuminous liquids. 

 The flowers are followed by one-seeded berries, of the shape of an acorn, but not so 

 large as a common pea. 



The plants are propagated by seeds or saplings. In two years the shoots are fit for 

 cutting, being then about half an inch thick ; but as the shoots are continually cut as 

 soon as they have obtained the proper size, a full-grown trunk never forms, so that the 

 more or less voluminous root-stalk is the only criterion of age. The peeling of the 

 rind takes place twice a year, from May to June, and in November, as at that time, in 

 consequence of the heavier rains, and the increase of sap, it can be more easily 

 detached from the wood. The epidermis having been scraped oflT, the bark is placed 

 on mats to dry in the sun, when it curls up, and acquires a darker tint. The smaller 

 pieces are then put inside the larger, and the whole closes together into the tubular 

 form, in which it is sold in the shops. The finer sort is as thin as parchment, light 

 brown, and extremely aromatic. 



From the American " Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature " we abridge an admirable 

 account of this plant: "Cinnamon was probably an article of commerce in ancient 

 Babylon. The Hebrews received it through the Midianites and Nabatheeans, who 

 brought it from the Arabian Gulf. It seems that the Arabians at an early period had 

 commercial intercourse with Ceylon and Continental India. The term itself occurs in 



