L A U 
this cinnamon, fent by Dr. Dancer, were examined by a 
committee of the Society of Arts, Sec. and fome eminent 
dealers in that fpice; who were of opinion that two of 
the famples were excellent, and even preferable to any 
cinnamon imported from Ceylon, both in colour and fla¬ 
vour. Mrs. Anltey brought two cinnamon-trees from 
Ceylon to Madras; and Dr. Roxburgh procured fix trees 
in 1789. 
2. Laurus caffia, caffia, or wild cinnamon : leaves tri¬ 
ple-nerved, lanceolate. Caffia, or wild cinnamon, though 
diltinguifhed by Linnaeus and others, is thought by the 
belt judges not to be a diftinCt fpecies from the preceding, 
or true cinnamon. Linnaeus’s diftinction, founded upon 
the leaves, is certainly nugatory ; and the difference of the 
bark may be owing to foil or (ituation, but more proba¬ 
bly to want of fkill or attention in the cultivators. The 
calfia-bark is coarfer, and will not roll up like true cin¬ 
namon ; but the efiential difference between the bark of 
cinnamon and caffia is that the former is always dry, 
whereas the latter becomes mucilaginous in chewing ; 
hence it has been fuggefted as a conjecture on the moll 
refpeCtable authority, that the fuperior excellence of cin¬ 
namon-bark may be in great meafure owing to its hav¬ 
ing been deprived of that mucilage which adheres to its 
interior furface. At leaft w r e are certain that in a curious 
drawing of Herman’s, now in the pofleffion of fir Jofeph 
Banks, representing the procefs of cutting and prepar¬ 
ing cinnamon in the ifland of Ceylon, one of the princi¬ 
pal figures is that of a woman who is evidently employed 
ih this operation of feraping the mucilage from the inner 
furface of the bark. 
The caffia is deferibed at great length in the Hortus 
Malabaricus; and Linnseus refers to this as an excellent 
defeription of the true cinnamon. Mr. Marfden informs 
us, that the caflia-trees grow from fifty to fixty feet high, 
with large fpreading horizontal branches, almoftas low as 
the earth. The leaves are about four inches long, nar¬ 
rower than thofe of the bay, and more pointed, deep green, 
with a f'mooth furface and plain edge; the principal fibres 
or nerves take their life from the peduncle. The young 
leaves are moflly of a reddifh hue. The bloffoms grow 
fix in number upon (lender footftalks, clofe to the bottom 
of the leaf. They are monopetalous, fmall, white, and 
ftellated in fix points. The ftamina are fix (Linnaeus fays 
nine), with one ftyle growing from the germ, which Hands 
up in three brownifh fegments refembling a cup. The 
fruit of cinnamon and caffia are very different, according 
to Gaertner’s figure and defeription. The root is faid to 
contain much camphire. The bark is commonly taken 
from luch of the trees as are a foot or eighteen inches di¬ 
ameter; for, when they are younger, it is faid to be fo 
thin as to lofe all its qualities very foon. Thofe trees 
which grow in a high rocky foil have red fhoots, and the 
bark is fuperior to that which is produced in a moift clay, 
where the fhoots are green. I have been allured, fays Mr. 
Marfden, by a perl’on of extenfive knowledge, that the 
caffia produced in Sumatra is from the fame tree that 
yields the true cinnamon ; and that the apparent differ¬ 
ence arifes from the lefs judicious manner of quilling it. 
Perhaps the younger and more tender branches fnould 
be preferred ; perhaps the age of the tree, or the feafon of 
the year, ought to be more nicely attended to; and it is 
iuggefted, that the mucilage, which adheres to the inlide 
of the frefh-peeled rind, does, when not carefully wiped 
off, injure the flavour of the caffia, and renders it inferior 
to that of the cinnamon. It is faid to be fometimes pur- 
chafed by the Dutch merchants, and (hipped for Spain as 
cinnamon, being packed in boxes which came from Cey¬ 
lon with that article. It is of the fame quality with cin¬ 
namon, but inferior in fragrancy and efficacy. The leaves 
are called by officinal writers folia malabatliri , and the bark 
eqjjia lignea. It is a native of Malabar, Java, Sumatra, 
chiefly in the northern and central part of the ifland, in 
thofe diftrifts which lie inland of Tappanooly. 
3. Laurus camphora, the camphor or camphire-tree 
Van.. XII. No. 831. 
R U S. 309 
leaves triple-nerved, lanceolate-ovate. The camphire- 
tree is very near a-kin to the cinnamon-tree, from which 
it differs in the leaves, thofe of the latter having three 
ribs running longitudinally from the footftalk to the 
point, where they foon diminifh ; whereas in this the ribs 
are fmall, and extend towards the fides; their furface is 
finooth and fhining. They are male and hermaphrodite 
in different trees. It is a large tree, with attending 
branches. Leaves quite entire, l'mooth, moflly alternate, 
but fome oppofite, petioled, whitifh underneath. Flowers 
white, on Ample, long, lateral, peduncles. Berry fmall, 
ovate, dufky or brownilh red. Mr. Marfden alfo deferibes 
it as equal in height and bulk to the large!! timber-trees, 
being frequently found upwardsof fifteen feet in circum¬ 
ference. The leaf is fmall, of a roundifh oval, ending in 
a long point or tail, the fibres running all parallel and 
nearly ltraight. The wood is in much efleem for carpen¬ 
ters’ purpol'es, being eal'y to work, light, durable, and 
not liable to be injured by infeCls, particularly the coom- 
bang, a fpecies of bee, which, from its faculty of boring 
timber for its neft, is called the carpenter. 
Native of China, Japan, Borneo, and Sumatra, if the 
capoor-barreos of the Malays be the product of the fame 
tree. Sir George Staunton met the young flirubs of it 
growing in the botanic garden of Batavia. He informs 
us that it is the only fpecies of the laurel genus growing 
in China, and is there a large and valuable timber-tree. 
It is ufed in the belt buildings of every kind, as well as 
for malls of vefl'els ; and bears too high a price to allow 
of any part except the branches being cut up for the fake 
of the drug, called alfo camphor , which it affords. This 
fubftance is obtained fometimes by boiling the branches, 
twigs, and leaves, in water; upon the furface of which 
it is found fwimming in the form of an oil; or adhering, 
in a glutinous form, to a wooden rod, with which the 
boiling matter is conftantly flirred. The glutinous male 
is then mixed with clay and lime, and put into an earthen 
veffel, with another of the fame fize properly luted over 
it: the lower veil'd being placed over a flow fire, the cam¬ 
phor gradually fublimes through the clay and lime, and 
adheres to the fides of the upper veffel, forming a cake 
of a fliape correfponding to the cavity which received it. 
It is, however, lefs pure, and much weaker, than what is 
difeovered in a folid ftate among the fibres of the trunk, 
as turpentine is found in different lorts of pines. In the 
great, but ill-peopled, ifland of Borneo, and alfo in Japan, 
the camphor-tree is felled for the foie purpofe of finding 
this coftiy drug in fubftance among the iplinters of the 
trunk, in the fame manner as other trees are felled in 
Louifiana merely for collecting the fruit they bear upoa 
their fummit9. The Borneo or Japan camphor is pure, 
and fo very ftrong as readily to communicate much of its 
odour and virtue toother infpill'ated oils, which thus pafs 
for real camphor; and this adulterated drug is fold by 
the Chinefe artilb at a vaftly lower price than they gave 
themfelves for the genuine fubftance from Borneo or Ja¬ 
pan. The tallow-tree grows generally near, and the cam¬ 
phor farther from, the banks of the river. 
Native camphor, the capoor-barroos of the Malays, is a 
production, for which Sumatra and Borneo have in all 
ages been much celebrated ; the Arabians being, at a very 
early period, acquainted with its virtues. Camphor, being 
of a dry nature, does not exude from the tree, or raanifeft 
any appearance on the outfule. The natives, from long 
experience, know whether any is contained within, by 
ftriking the tree with a flick. In that cafe, they cut it 
down, and fplit it with wedges into fmall pieces, finding 
the camphor in the interftices in the ftate of a concrete 
cryftailizatiou. Some have afl'erted that it is from the old. 
trees alone that this fubliance is procured, and that in the 
young trees it is in a fluid ftate, called meenio capoor, or 
camphor oil ; but this is a offtake. The fame fort of tree 
that produces the fluid does not produce the dry tranfpa- 
rent flaky fubftance, nor ever would. They are readily 
diftinguithed by the natives. The native.cawphor is pur- 
4, K. chafed 
