CHAPTER VII 
CASSIA BARK 
There are several barks of an aromatic nature known 
in commerce as Cassia bark or Cassia lignea. They all 
belong to the one or more species of Cinnamomum, and 
are uatives of the Eastern Asiatic Archipelago or China. 
The species of the Malayan Archipelago are not culti- 
vated, but the bark is derived from forest trees. 
That of China is cultivated by the Chinese, and is 
exported thence to Europe and other parts of the world. 
This species is 
CINNAMOMUM CASSIA, BL. 
This is a large evergreen tree, attaining a height of 
about 50 ft. with a girth of 5 ft. The bark is grey and 
smooth, thick in adult trees. 
The leaves are oblong, dark, shining dark -green, 
with three prominent nerves about 6 in. long and 3 in. 
wide, the petiole short and thick. The inflorescence is 
lax and spreading. The flowers are small and borne on 
short stalks, arranged in threes, and forming small cymes 
in branches at the end of the panicles. They are 
yellowish white in colour. The whole flower pedicels 
and peduncles are finely tomentose. The perianth is 
deeply divided into six oblong short blunt lobes, and 
bears nine stamens and three staminodes or barren 
stamens. The anthers have four cells, which open by 
little valves or lids, as in all plants of the laurel tribe. 
This pistil is in the centre of the flower, oval, with a 
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