434 
THE  CINNAMON  GARDENS  OF  CEYLON. 
star-fish  shape  for  the  larger  compound  crystals,  which  appear  to 
be  made  up  of  plates  or  layers  of  single  squares. 
These  crystals  when  collected  on  a  filter  and  dried,  produce 
the  usual  orange-red  colored  reaction  with  nitric  acid,  but  un- 
like pure  morphia,  when  touched  with  sulphuric  acid,  assume 
a  deep  sepia  brown  with  a  purplish  shade,  which  is  more  or 
less  persistent, — -totally  different  from  the  reaction  on  any  other 
alkaloid. 
Possibly,  by  applying  this  test  to  some  other  alkaloids, 
we  may  obtain  some  useful  characteristic  by  which  they 
can  be  recognised  better  than  by  some  of  our  present  methods. 
—  Chem.  Neivs,  London,  June  28,  1862. 
THE  CINNAMON  GARDENS  OF  CEYLON. 
The  traveller  who  visits  Colombo  will  scarcely  fail  to  enter 
the  cinnamon  gardens,  in  order  to  enjoy  the  delightful,  peculiar 
odor  of  the  bark  of  this  remarkable  bush,  which  plays  such  an 
important  part  in  the  history  of  Ceylon. 
During  the  prosperous  period  of  the  cinnamon  culture,  the 
five  largest  cinnamon  plantations  on  the  south-western  part  of 
the  Island  had  a  circumference  of  fifteen  to  twenty  English 
miles.  To  a  considerable  degree  all  the  other  profitable  pro- 
ductions of  the  Island  were  neglected.  The  cultivation  of 
cinnamon — a  monoply  of  the  different  governments  which  have 
successively  ruled  and  plundered  Ceylon  and  its  inhabitants — 
was  carried  on  particularly  by  the  Dutch  East  India  Company 
with  barbarous  rigor.  The  smallest  theft  of  cinnamon,  or 
intentional  injury  of  the  tree,  was  punished  with  death. 
For  breaking  off  a  branch,  the  penalty  was  cutting  off  the 
arm.  Every  plant  which  accidentally  grew  in  the  garden  of  a 
private  citizen  was  the  property  of  the  government,  and  the 
cinnamon-gatherer  or  cinnamon-peeler  had  the  right  to  collect 
its  bark.  To  disturb  such  a  plant, — even  although  but  to 
transplant  it, — was  a  crime  to  which  life  was  a  forfeit.  The 
workmen  who  were  engaged  in  collecting,  peeling  and  preparing 
the  bark,  belonged  to  the  caste  of  the  Chalias,-— the  lowest 
class.  Even  under  the  English  rule  this  monopoly  of  cinnamon, 
so  injurious  to  trade,  continued,  until  it  was  finally  abolished  in 
1832,  and  the  merchants  of  Columbo  and  Galle  were  able  to 
