210 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
is suitable ; such land in a flat country is preferable 
to hilly spots. The soil that is rocky or stony under 
the surface is bad, as the trees would neither grow fast 
nor yield a remunerative return. E. Boddam, in the 
Mysore Gazette^ condemns any but siliceous soils. He 
says that besides inferiority in smell, taste, and colour 
which invariably mark plants grown in any other soil, 
another disadvantage is this, that while the stumps of 
plants grown in siliceous soils shoot forth rapidly, and 
are fit to be peeled a second time within a period of 
four or five years, producing bark superior in quality to 
that peeled at first, those grown on a hilly or marshy soil 
require a time of not less than six years before they can 
undergo a second peeling and yield bark less in quantity 
and inferior in quality to that peeled off at first. 
All seem to agree that the best cinnamon is that 
grown on sandy, loose soil, at a low elevation. There 
is no doubt that the plant itself will grow luxuriantly 
in damper, more argillaceous soils, and in such soils it 
has established itself as a wild plant about Singapore 
and elsewhere. But the ease and luxuriance with 
which the plant grows does not at all prove that it will 
be successful as a giver of good bark. In damp shady 
spots the tree seems to be much less aromatic, and 
probably contains much less oil, passing towards the 
wild Cinnamomum iners, which is hardly at all aromatic 
and is so common in damp low-lying spots in the Malay 
Peninsula. The planter should be sure that his soil is 
suitable for the plant, and that the product obtained 
would be up to the standard of first-class quality, 
before embarking extensively in the cultivation. 
As far as climate is concerned, the rainfall should be 
adequate, 85 to 100 in. a year, and the temperature 
averaging 85° or little higher or lower. Prolonged, dry, 
rainless spells do not suit this plant at all. 
Raising from Seed . — The cinnamon tree is usually 
grown from seed. The seeds are gathered when ripe, 
and heaped up in a shady place, till the outside pulp 
rots and turns quite black, when the seeds can be freed 
