236

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

culated on the under side, smooth, the üppermost the smallest. Panicles ter-minal and axillary, stalked. Flowers hoary and silky; Segments oblong, deci-duous in tho middle (Nees). (Systema Laurinarum.)

Botanists admit several varieties of this specios

Fig. 190.

Cinnamomum zeylanicum.

: the most important are,— a. Broad-leaved,Moon {Cat. of Ceylon Planta): Mu-pat(Cingalese). The plant above described.

ß. Narrow-leaved, Moon. Cinnamomumzeylanicum var. y. Cassia, Nees. Heen-pat(Cingalese). This variety, which I havereceived from Ceylon, under the name ofBastard Cinnarnon, has oblong or ellipticalIeaves, much tapering to the point, andacute at the base.

Pereival (Account of tue Island of Cey-lon,) mentions four varieties which arebarked : Ist, Rasse curundu, or honey cin-narnon, with broad Ieaves, yields the bestbark ; 2dly, Nai curundu, or snake cinna-rnon, also wilh large Ieaves, not greatly in-ferior to the former; 3dly, Capu.ru curun-du, or camphor cinnarnon, an inferior kind;4thly, Cabatte curundu, or aslringent cin-narnon, with smaller Ieaves ; its bark has abarst) taste.

Hai».—Cultivated in Ceylon and Java.

Productios. —The cinnarnon bark of Ceylon is obtained by the eultivationof the plant. The prineipal cinnarnon gardens lie in the neighbourhood of Co-lumbo. (See Percival's Account of Ceylon, 2d ed. 1805.) The bark-peelers, orcholiahs, having selected a tree of the best quality, lop off such branches as arethree years old, and which appear proper for the purpose. Shoots or branches,much less than half an inch or more than two or three inches in diameter, arenot peeled. The peeling is effected by making two opposite, or when the brauchis thick three or four, longitudinal incisions, and then elevating the bark by in-troducing the peeling-knife beneath it. When the bark adheres firmly, its Sepa-ration is promoted by friction with the handle of the knife. In twenty-fourhours the epidermis and greenish pulpy matter (rete mueosum) are carefullyscraped off. In a few hours the smaller quills are introduced into the largerones, and in this way a congeries of quills formed, often measuring forty inchesIon"'. The bark is then dried in the sun, and afterwards made into bundleswith pieces of split bamboo twigs. (Pereival, op. cit.; and Marshall, in Tlwm-son's Ann. of Philosophy, vol. x.)

Commerce. —Cinnarnon is imported in bales, boxes, and chests, from Ceylonprincipally ; but in part also from Madras, Tellicherry, and rarely from Can-ton. (Trade List for 1837 and 1838.) In 1830, 14,345 Ibs. ; and in 1831,2,305 Ibs. of cinnarnon were imported from the Cape of Good Hope. (Parlia-mentary Returns.) The quantities of cinnarnon on which the import duty of6d. per Ib. was paid, during the last sixyears, are the following (Trade List):

In 1835 ............. 1(5,255 Ibs. I In 1837 ............. 13,697 Ibs. I In 163!) ............. 15,533 Ibs.

183B ............. 17,398 Ibs. | 1838 ............. 16,605 Ibs. | 1840 ............. 16,515 Ibs.

Cinnarnon exported from the island of Ceylon is subjeet to the exorbitantduty of 3s. per Ib. This has been put on as a Substitute for the previous mono-poly in the eultivation and sale of cinnarnon, held by the government. (M'Cul-loch, Commerc. Diction.)

A few years ago it was the practice to sprinkle black pepper among the balesof cinnarnon in stowing them, in order to preserve and improve the quality ofthe bark. (Pereival, op.cit., and Marshall, loa. cit.)

Description. —When cinnarnon comes into dock, it is unpacked and ex-amined ; all the mouldy and broken pieces are removed from it. It is then re-