CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
117 
Lam. Diet. viii. 799. tab. 399 ; — arborea, 10-orgyalis et infra^ 
cortice griseo gusto cinnamomi donata; foliis oblongo-obo- 
vatis, integerrimis, nitidis, crassiusculis, tenuiter anastonioso- 
nervosis, pellucido-punctatis, vetustioribus opacis, subtus 
pallidioribus, petiolo crassiusculo caiialiculato ; corymbo ter- 
minali folio sub-breviori ; pedicellis llore lequiloiigis, petalis 
violaceo-albis. — In Antillanis. — v. s. in herb, e Jamaica, Cuba, 
et viv. in hort. Kew. cult.^ 
This tree, of which a history has been given in a preceding 
page, seems to have been confounded to this day with a kind of 
Cinnamodendron presently to be described. I am led to believe 
that the true Canella alba grows chiefly in the forests of the 
mountains of Jamaica, where its upright trunk attains a height 
of 50 or 60 feet, with terminal abundant foliage ; wLile the 
Cinnamodendron just alluded to rises in the plains, forming a 
branching shrubby tree, from 10 to 15 feet in height. It re- 
mains to be seen whether the Canella described as existing in the 
Bermudas and other West India Islands be identical with it, or 
whether it be a distinct species. The specimens I have seen 
from the island of Cuba appear speciflcally the same as those 
from Jamaica. The bark taken off the branches for commercial 
purposes is double, the outer one being grey, and of the thick- 
ness of a shilling, while the inner bark, sought after by drug- 
gists, under the name of cortex Canellce alba, is double that 
thickness, of a paler colour, and of a more pungent and aro- 
matic taste. The leaves are about 5 inches long, 1^ inch broad, 
on a petiole about 4 lines in length. The corymb, much branched, 
seldom exceeds 1 or 1^ inch in length; the pedicels are 3 lines 
long ; the orbicular sepals 2 lines in diameter ; the petals about 
3 lines long ; the staminal tube about the same length ; the 20 
anther- cells, little more than a line long, are equidistant from 
each other, separated by a very narrow interval, and open by a 
medial line along their whole length. The berry is oval, about 
5 lines long and 4 lines in diameter ; it generally bears 2 to 4 
seeds, which are black, shining, 2^ lines long. If line in dia- 
meter, and are somewhat reniforrn on the ventral face. 
There appears to be still another kind of Canella, but whether 
a mere variety, or a distinct species, remains to be ascertained. 
It is mentioned by G. Don (Diet. i. 680) under the name of 
C. laurifolia, as forming a tree 15 feet high, and growing in the 
West Indies, Plants of it were raised from seed at Hackney by 
Loddiges in 1817 (Lodd. Cat.). It has terminal flowers, as in 
* A figure of this species, with structural details, will be given in plate 
23 A. of this volume. 
