LAUREL. 
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the cinnamon tree is white, and when in full bloom 
seems to cover the woods. “ It is probable,” says 
this gentleman, “ from the great distance to which an 
object of this colour is seen, that voyagers have been 
led to affirm that the cinnamon may be smelt far at 
sea off the island. This assertion is in fact a mere 
fiction, as even in passing through the woods I never 
could perceive any scent from the tree, except by 
pulling off some of the leaves or branches. The 
flower has even less scent than the leaves or a bit of 
twig. 
“ The cinnamon tree produces a species of fruit 
resembling an acorn, but not so large, which gets 
ripe about the latter end of autumn, and is gathered 
by the natives for the purpose of extracting oil from 
it. The process they employ is to bruise the fruit, 
boil it, and skim off the oil : this they use for their 
hair and body on great occasions, and also for burn- 
ing in their lamps. When mixed with cocoa-nut 
oil it gives an extremely good light. The kings of 
Candy use it for this purpose, and formerly com- 
manded their subjects to bring them a certain quan- 
tity as a yearly tribute. When any ambassadors 
are sent to these princes, they always burn this oil 
during the time of audience. When the tree gets 
old and decayed, and most of the branches fit for 
barking have been stripped off, it is customary to set 
fire to it, and burn it down to the ground ; the roots 
are seen to shoot up again in strong straight plants, 
much better formed than the preceding ones. From 
these are cut the highly esteemed cinnamon walk- 
