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cinnamon trees of Colombo.

_Peeling_.--The best cinnamon is obtained from the stalks or twigs,
which shoot up in a cluster of eight or ten together from the roots,
after the parent bush or tree has been cut down. These shoots are cut
once in about three years, close to the ground. Great care is
requisite, both as to the exact size and age; for if the bark is too
young, it has a green taste, if too old it is rough and gritty. These
shoots yield an incomparably fine cinnamon bark. When cut for peeling
they are of various sizes and lengths, depending on the texture of the
bark. These rods afford the hazel-like walking-sticks so much esteemed
by strangers, and which, though difficult to be procured during the
prevalence of the oppressive cinnamon regulations, may now be very
easily obtained from proprietors of grounds producing that spice.
Cinnamon is barked at two periods of the year, between April and
December. Those suckers which are considered fit for cutting, are
usually about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and five feet or
more long. The first operation is to strip them of the outside
pellicle of bark. The twigs are then ripped up lengthwise with the
point of a knife, and the liber or inner bark gradually loosened, till
it can be entirely taken off. While drying they are cut up into long
narrow rolls, called "quills," then stuck into one another, so as to
form pipes about three or four feet long, which are afterwards made up
in round bundles.

During the first day the cinnamon is suspended under shelter upon open
platforms, and on the second day it is placed on wicker-work shelves,
and exposed to the sun until sufficiently dry to be examined and
sorted for shipment.

It is brought home in bags or bales of 80 or 90 lbs. weight, and
classed before export into three sorts; first, second, and third
quality. The different kinds of cinnamon bark may be thus classified,
according to quality--

1. That which ranks above all others in quality, is known by the
Singhalese name of _penne_ or _rasse kuroondu_, sharp sweet, or honey
cinnamon.

2. _Naya kuroondu_, snake cinnamon.

3. _Kapoorn kuroondu_, camphorated cinnamon, from the very strong
smell of camphor which it possesses. This variety is principally
obtained from the plantations of the interior.

4. _Kahate_ or _canalle kuroondu_, astringent cinnamon. In this
species the bark peels off very easily, and smells agreeably when
fresh, but it has a bitter t