S U M A T R A. 
fetribllng a cup. The trees grow from fifty to fixty feet high, with large, 
fp reading, horizontal branches, ahiioft as low as the earth. The root is 
{■aid to contain much camphire, that may be obtained by boiling or other 
procefles unknown on Sunmtra. No pains is beftowed on,thc cultiva- 
tion of the csfiia. The bark, which is the part In life, is commonly ta- 
. ken from fuch of the trees as are a foot or eighteen inches diameter, for 
when they sre yoi:nger, k is faid to be fo thin, as toloofe all it's qualities 
, Y-cry foon. The drffcrence of foil and fituatiOn alters confiderably the 
value of the bnrk, Thofc -trees which grow in a high rocky foil, havx 
Ted flioors, and the bark is fuperior to that which is produced in a 
moifl clay, where the fiioots are green. I have been affured by a pcrfoa 
jof extenfive knowledge, that the caffia produced on Sumatr.i, isftom the 
.f&me treewhieh yields the true cinnamon> ahd that the apparent diffe- 
rence arifes from the lefs judicious manner of qiiilling it. Perhaps the 
younger and more tender branches ihould be preferred ? perhaps the age 
of the tree, or the fcafon of the year ought to be more nicely attended 
to ; and laftly I have known it to be fuggefted, that the mucilaginous 
llmie which adheres to the infide of the frefh peeled rindj does, when not 
carefully wiped off, injure the flavor of the caffia, and render it inferior 
to that of ihe cinnamon. I am informed that it has been purchafcd by 
Dutch merchants at cur India fales, Tvhere k fomctimes fold to much 
lofs, and afterwards by them -{hipped for Spain, as cinnamon, being 
packed in boses which had come from Ceylon with that article. 
Rattans {roU:?:) furnifh annually many large cargoes, chiefly from the 
eailcm iide of rh^ ifland, where the Dutch buy them to fend to Europe; 
and the countr^y traders^ for the wefleru parts of India. Canes alfo, of 
various kinds, afe procured in the pons which open to the ftraits of 
Malacca. ^ 
In aimoft every part of the country two fpecies of cotton are culti- 
vatedj namely^ the annual fort {goffypium herhaceumjy and the flirub cot- 
ton (goflypium arhrem). The cotton procured from both appears to be 
of very good qualitv, and might, with encouragement, be procured in 
any 
