Am.  .lour.  Pluirm. 
Mar.,  1883 
Origin  of  Cassia  Lignea. 
139 
by  the  Leyden  Herbarium.  This  is  no  doubt  an  authentic  type  of  the 
plant  described  by  Blume ;  and  Professor  Oliver  finds  that  it  agrees 
precisely  with  the  plant  collected  by  Mr.  Ford  on  the  West  River.  It 
may  be,  therefore,  considered  finally  settled  on  the  one  hand,  that  the 
Chinese  cassia  lignea  plant  is  really  the  Glnnamomum  Cassia,  Blume^ 
and  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  plant  cultivated  in  Java  is  identical 
with  that  now  known  to  be  the  source  of  the  spice  in  China. 
It  is  remarkable  that  though  the  cultivation  of  the  cassia  lignea  tree 
has  apparently  been  carried  on  in  Southern  China  from  time  immemo- 
rial, it  does  not  appear  to  be  indigenous  there.^  In  Cochin-China, 
however,  there  appears  to  be  some  probability  of  its  being  really  wild. 
Cinnamomum  Cassia  is,  botanically,  very  closely  allied  to  C.  obtusifo- 
lium,  Nees,  one  of  the  species  from  which  a  similar  product  is  obtained 
on  the  Khasia  hills. 
It  only  remains  to  give  Mr.  Ford's  account  of  the  mode  of  collecting 
and  preparing  the  bark.  He  obtained  and  sent  to  this  country  a  set 
of  the  implements,  which  are  deposited  in  the  Kew  Museum. 
"Bark. — When  the  trees  are  about  six  years  old,  the  first  cut  of  bark 
is  obtained.  The  season  for  barking  commences  in  March  and  continues 
until  the  end  of  May,  after  which  the  natives  say  the  bark  loses  its 
aroma,  and  is  therefore  not  removed  from  the  trees.  The  branches,, 
which  are  about  an  inch  thick,  being  cut  to  within  a  few  inches  of  the 
ground,  are  carried  to  houses  or  sheds  in  the  vicinity  of  the  plantations. 
All  the  small  twigs  and  leaves  being  cleared  off,  a  large-bladed  knife^ 
with  the  cutting-edge  something  like  the  end  of  a  budding  knife,  is 
used  to  make  two  longitudinal  slits  and  three  or  four  incisions,  at  six- 
teen inches  apart,  round  the  circumference  through  the  bark  ;  the  bark 
is  then  loosened  by  passing  underneath  it  a  kind  of  slightly  curved 
horn  knife  with  the  two  edges  slightly  sharpened.  Pieces  of  bark  six- 
teen inches  long  and  half  the  circumference  are  thus  obtained. 
"  The  bark,  after  its  removal  and  while  it  is  still  moist  with  sap,  is 
then  laid  with  the  concave  side  downwards,  and  a  small  plane  passed 
over  it,  and  the  epidermis  removed.  After  this  operation  the  bark  is 
left  to  dry  for  about  twenty-four  hours,  and  then  tied  up  in  bundles 
about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  and  sent  into  the  merchants'  houses 
in  the  market  towns. 
^The  earliest  printed  notice  in  works  professing  to  give  botanical  informa- 
tion about  China  appears  to  be  in  Martini's  "Atlas  Sinensis"  (1655).  See 
Bretschneider's  "Early  European  Researches  into  the  Flora  of  China," 
p.  13. 
