CINNAMON. 115 
Buckwheat is much cultivated in the domains of 
noblemen and gentlemen possessed of landed property, 
as a food for pheasants. With some farmers it is the 
practice to sow buckwheat for the purpose only of 
ploughing it into the ground, as a manure for the land. 
Whilst green, it serves as food for sheep and oxen ; 
and, mixed with other provender, it may also be given 
with advantage to horses. The blossoms may be used 
for dyeing a brown colour. 
The principal advantage of buckwheat is, that it is 
capable of being cultivated upon land which will pro- 
duce scarcely any thing else, and that its culture, com- 
paratively with that of other grain, is attended with 
little expense. 
CLASS IX. ENNEANDRIA. 
MONOGYNIA. 
' 127. CINNAMON is the under bark of the branches of a 
tree of the bay tribe (Laurus cinnamomum, Fig. 40,) which is 
chiefly found in the island of Ceylon, but which also grows in 
Malabar and other parts of the East Indies. 
This tree attains the height of twenty or thirty feet. Its 
leaves are oval, each from four to six inches long, and marked 
with three principal nerves. Thejflowers stand on slender foot- 
stalks., and are of pale yellow colour ; and the fruit is somewhat 
shaped like an acorn. 
There are two principal seasons of the year in which 
the Ceylonese enter their woods for the purpose of 
barking the cinnamon trees. The first of these com- 
mences in April, and the last in November : but the 
former is that in which the great crop is obtained. In 
this operation the branches of three years' growth are 
cut down, and the outside pellicle of the bark is 
scraped away. The twigs are then ripped up length- 
ways with a knife, and the bark is gradually loosened 
till it can be entirely taken off. It is then cut into slices, 
