436 
THE  CINNAMON  GARDENS  OF  CEYLON. 
leaves  and  light  yellow  flower  stalks,  set  off  by  the  snowy  white 
sandy  alluvial  soil  in  which  they  best  flourish,  appear  doubly 
fresh  and  vigorous.  The  time  of  blooming  is  in  January  ;  the 
fruit  ripens  in  April,  when  the  plant  is  the  richest  in  sap.  In 
May  the  peeling  of  the  branches  begins,  and  it  lasts  till  Octo- 
ber. The  cutting  and  gathering  of  the  shoots,  one  year  old, 
and  as  thick  as  the  thumb,  is  very  troublesome,  and  requires 
many  hands.  Each  workman  cuts  off  as  many  branches  as  he 
can  carry  in  one  bundle,  and  then  with  the  point  of  a  curved 
knife  skilfully  loosens  the  bark  from  the  wood,  and  with  great 
care  peels  off  the  gray  epidermis  and  bast  tissue,  and  lays  the 
stripped,  parchment-like  cinnamon  in  the  sun,  when  it  dries  and 
rolls  up.  An  uncommonly  delicious,  aromatic  perfume  hovers 
around  the  spot  where  the  peeling  of  the  bark  is  performed, 
like  that  exhaled  on  the  breaking  of  a  twig  or  a  leaf.  Whatever 
travellers,  however,  may  relate  of  the  odor  of  the  groves  as 
wafted  to  them  at  sea  for  a  considerable  distance,  yet  it  would 
appear  that  this  agreeable  smell  arises  much  more  from  other 
aromatic  productions  in  which  the  island  is  so  rich,  than  from 
the  cinnamon,  which  yields  it  only  to  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood. The  best  kind  of  cinnamon  is  as  thin  as  strong  paper, 
delicate,  brittle,  of  a  fine  golden  yellow  color,  sweet  and  spicy ; 
the  coarser  sorts  are  thicker^  of  a  darker  brown  color,  pungent, 
biting,  and  leaving  in  the  mouth  a  bitter  taste.  In  the  store- 
houses the  cinnamon  is  sorted,  the  quills  placed  inside  of  each 
other,  packed  in  bundles  of  four  feet  in  length,  and  sewed  up 
in  packages  of  ninety  pounds  weight.  In  all  the  crevices  and 
interstices  of  the  package  a  considerable  quantity  of  pepper  is 
strewed,  in  order  to  preserve  the  cinnamon  during  the  transport- 
ation, whereby  both  spices  are  improved.  The  black  pepper 
attracts  the  excess  of  moisture,  and  refines  the  odor  of  the 
cinnamon. 
In  consequence  of  the  decline  of  the  cinnamon  culture,  at- 
tributable to  the  change  of  taste  among  the  people,  and  thereby 
to  the  comparatively  trifling  consumption  of  the  spice  once  so 
•  highly  valued,  the  cultivation  of  coffee  in  Ceylon  has  increased 
ten-fold  in  the  last  twenty  years,  and  the  want  of  laborers  is 
the  only  cause,  that  with  the  remunerative  profit  it  affords,  it 
has  not  increased  still  more.  Vierteljahresschrlft  fur praJctisehe 
Pharmacie.  a.  J.  S. 
