220 
ON THE LAURUS CASSIA. 
illinita) as in the camphor tree, and are at the same time 
lanceolate and of a thinner texture than the preceding (cinna- 
mon.) The whole of his description, in short, agrees most ex- 
actly with Mr. Marshall's description of the Cingalese Dawal- 
kurundu, and leaves not a doubt that both had the same plant 
in view, and consequently that Mr. Marshall is so far correct 
in saying that the bark of the Laurus Cassia of Linnaeus 
possessed none of the qualities attributed to it. So far all is 
clear ; but now the chapter of errors begins. 
Had Linnaeus been permitted to exercise his own unbiassed 
judgment in this case, it is not improbable he would have 
avoided the error of assigning to a plant which, with all his 
acuteness, he knew not how to distinguish from the camphor 
tree, the credit of producing Cassia, or at all events would not 
have done so without some expression of doubt, so as still to 
leave the question an open one. But, upon consulting other 
authorities, he found in Burman's "Thesaurus Zeylanicus" the 
figure of a species of Cinnamomum or Laurus as he called 
the genus, to which Burman had given the name of Cinna- 
momum per pet uo Jlorens, &c, and assigned the native name 
of Dawalkurundu, not as it appears from the specimen itself 
having been so named, but because being different from the 
true cinnamon of which he had seen specimens and figures, he 
thought it an inferior, wild or jungle sort, which must of 
necessity be the plant that Herman had described in his 
" Musasum Zeylanicum," though the inflorescence differed 
much from the description, (a very essential point, which 
Burman remarked and endeavors to explain away,) and there- 
tore gave it the same Cingalese name. Linnaeus's specimen 
not being in flower, and the resemblance between the speci- 
men and figure being in other respects considerable, he had 
not the means of detecting the discrepancy, and unsuspecting- 
ly adopted Burman's figure and name as a synonym to his 
plant. In Rheede's " Hortus Malabaricus," (1 tab. 57) he 
found the figure of another cinnamon, even more closely re- 
sembling his plant in its general aspect than Burman's figure; 
this he also associated as a synonym ; and Rheede's plant be- 
